Under the Storm's Veil
by LesAlaska
Summary: For years the shinobi nations have been at war with a race of beings known to them as demons till they find themselves being saved by a group of demons. With a common enemy, the two races form and aliance that may lead to friendship, sorrow and even love.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**_

_**Time line: The characters from Naruto who are 15 in the shippuuden are 20 and the 16 year olds are 21. This is also somewhat an AU story so some of the original characters from the series will not be whom they really are just to make it all the more interesting. **_

Two siblings were playing ball by themselves in the street outside their house as twilight began to fade to night in Konoha. The girl, the elder of the two, tossed the ball to her younger brother who failed to catch it.

He quickly ran after the ball as it continued to roll down the deserted streets with his sister shouting after him.

"Just leave the ball Souta! Mum told us not to wander off at night!"

The ball finally stopped rolling when it came in contact with a foot. The boy named Souta stopped in his tracks. The figure picked up the ball but seeing as he was standing in the shadows, Souta couldn't make out who it was.

He was scared, and his sister was still some ways behind. He was prepared to run, but when the figure stepped out into the light, he sighed in relief.

"Hokage-sama!" Souta exclaimed as the he was handed back his ball.

"That's Naruto nii-chan to you Souta. Konaha is still mainly under Tsunade's rule, I just help out. And what are you doing out at night? It's not safe right now."

"Naruto-san, thank goodness you found Souta!" the boys' sister came running.

"He sort of found me." Naruto chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair but his face turned serious when he looked up at the girl.

"You shouldn't be out at this hour Ame, you know how dangerous it is," he said to her.

Ame was old enough to know what he meant.

She nodded. "I know, but our mum and dad are working late and he really wanted to play so I thought that just a few minutes would be fine."

Naruto smiled at her to show that he understood.

"It's time I take you home," Naruto said as he ushered the two kids along.

Once he made sure they were safely home and their doors locked, he continued his patrol down the now dark and empty streets lost in his own thoughts.

It had been 20 years since the last major demon attack. All the large shinobi nations had banded together to fight them off but even then, the demon numbers were still too great and they had wiped out almost all of the female human population.

The once great nations now walked on eggshells amongst each other, defending whatever was left of their populations.

The aim of the demons had been to wipe out the whole human race but the shinobi had fought bravely and had managed to drive them to retreat. Killing off as many females as they could had been a last resort.

Naruto's father had been one of the shinobi on the front lines.

The thing about the vampyre demons was that they were immortal and therefore very hard to kill, not unless you managed to cut off their heads. Naruto's father had used a forbidden jutsu to kill off a number of demons but in the end he'd had to sacrifice his life.

Naruto's mother had also been killed that night trying to protect her newborn baby before help had arrived. That incident had left him as an orphan but he didn't think anyone in the world could ever be as proud of their parents as he was of his.

Naruto stopped short when he saw a figure running up the road to him.

Kiba stopped in front of Naruto with Akamaru at his side. Both were panting heavily and Kiba was clutching his knees. Still gasping for breath, he looked up, face deathly pale

"W-what's wrong Kiba?" Naruto stuttered, steadying him.

"Gai and Lee are back. Their conditions are getting worse by the minute." He managed.

"Where are they?"

"In surgery with Tsunade-sama."

The mission they had been on required only a two-man cell. It was a stealth mission on which they had been sent to uncover extremely important information that could possibly mean life or death for the people of Konoha. He didn't think the damage would be this great.

Naruto was at a loss of words. All he could do was stare at Kiba as his face started to turn green. Almost as if just thinking about what had happened to Gai and Lee made him sick.

Was the damage really that bad? He had to see for himself in order to gauge the situation. He started to walk past Kiba, heading in the direction of the hospital.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I want to see this for myself," he replied. "You coming?"

"One second," Kiba said before doubling over and hurling the contents of his stomach onto the sidewalk.

"_Now_ I'm good to go." Kiba wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

Naruto couldn't help but clutch his sides in laughter.

"Shut up."

The two ran through the streets to the hospital and didn't stop even when they had reached it. They continued through the halls and came to a halt in front of the emergency room. Taking a deep breath, Kiba opened the double doors.

Naruto was expecting to see a frantic emergency room with nurses scurrying around but there was barely anyone present. The only person in the room was Tsunade who sat on a stool in a corner, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Why wasn't she doing anything if the situation was as bad as Kiba had made it seem.

"Tsunade baa-chan?" he stepped into the room but immediately covered his mouth and nose. The room reeked of rotting flesh. Now he knew why Kiba looked so ill.

Tsunade seemed to be oblivious to the smell and the surroundings.

"What's that smell?" he asked Kiba.

Hesitantly, and holding his own nose, he dragged himself and Naruto over to the two beds near the center of the room where Gai and Lee lay unconscious. Thick blankets covered their bodies except their faces, which showed no obvious sign of a serious injury.

But as Kiba pulled the blanket off Lee, Naruto felt his stomach lurch. Lee's whole left arm was purplish-black in color. It looked burnt and was covered in large blisters. Yellowish puss seeped out from where the blisters had burst, leaving holes in his flesh. The stench was now unbearable.

"Wha-what happened to him?"

"He was stabbed with an unknown poison. It's the same thing on Gai-sensei's leg." Kiba replied as he covered Lee with the blanket once again.

"We've tried every single antidote we own but none seem to work. Gaara is on his way over from Suna bringing antidotes of his own but…" he bowed his head and Akamaru came over to lick his hand.

"Isn't there a way to remove the poison straight from them instead of using an antidote?" Naruto asked, a glint of hope in his eyes.

"I wouldn't recommend that." Tsunade stood up and showed them her partially blackened right hand.

"Tsunade baa- chan !" Naruto rushed over to her.

"I'm fine," she assured the blonde. "It's only temporary. But if I had carried out the full process, it would have been fatal."

Naruto's face fell, but he turned around when someone grabbed his shoulder. Behind him stood the young man who had once tried to kill him, but now held the title of one of his best friends.

Gaara's usually stoic face was solemn and his eyes burnt into Naruto's as he tried to give the blonde some form of encouragement. Two medic nin entered the room behind the red head who released his grip on Naruto.

"I've brought all the antidotes available," he spoke calmly.

"You have my gratitude Gaara."

The medics can take over from here as I wish to talk with Naruto and Gaara." Tsunade said as she bandaged her blackened hand.

"Kiba can you alert Neiji of Lee and Gai's current situation, he has yet to find out."

"Sure."

As Kiba sped off to find Neiji, the two Kage's and Kage-to-be exited the room and made their way down the hospitals halls.

"What if the antidotes don't work?" Naruto couldn't help but let the question slip.

"Then we would just have to trust in their will to live," Tsunade replied.

"What matter did you want to discuss?" Gaara asked.

"It's about the mission. But we best continue this matter in my office." Gaara and Naruto knew that she meant that she wanted to discuss this matter in private.

-000-

Tsunade stood facing her window whilst Gaara and Naruto stood behind her desk.

"When Gai and Lee were brought to the hospital," she started. "Gai was already unconscious. He had collapsed after carrying Lee all the way back. However, Lee managed to pass over some information before he too lost consciousness." she turned around to face them. Her face was more serious than Naruto had ever seen.

"The demon army is coming in fast from the west. We have less than 2 days to prepare before they attack."

"So they're coming to finish the job they started twenty years ago." Naruto stated.

Tsunade could only nod.

"What are their numbers?" Gaara asked.

"Three shinobi to ten _monsters_." She said the word monsters with obvious disgust.

"What? That can't be right!" the blonde exclaimed.

"That's Gai and Lee's estimated amount. Especially since Suna is the only village who is willing to risk coming to our aid. The civilians living near the main gate will be moved as far inward as possible."

"What about the safe house above the Hokage tower?" Gaara inquired.

"We will use that as an emergency room. The number of injured will be high and we will need more space than the hospital can provide."

"That is all the information we have. All we can do now is to be ready and wait them out. We cannot afford to lose anymore shinobi by sending them on missions to attack the army before they reach the main gate."

Tsunade sat down at her desk, somewhat exhausted. Naruto and Gaara exited the room only to be stopped by Shizune who had been standing outside.

"What's wrong Shizune?" Naruto asked.

"The antidotes didn't work," she replied. "The Suna medics are waiting for the Kazekage at the hospital." She finished and walked past them into Tsunade's office.

-000-

"I'm sorry Naruto-san," Gaara said as they walked down the Hokage tower steps.

"Don't be; I know Gai and Lee, they'll make it through this."

"We can only hope. I best take my leave now. If you need me I'll be in the guest housing." Gaara added and in a swirl of his sand, vanished.

Naruto sighed and headed back to the direction of his own apartment. Even though he was exhausted and his eyes heavy, he knew he would be barely getting any sleep for the next day would bring the invasion ever closer.

-000-

"I want the Jounin's and Chuunin's on the front line! Genin, ensure the safety of the civilians!"

"We are all going to have to work together if we are going to survive this invasion!" Tsunade shouted from the front steps of the Hokage tower. On her right and left were Naruto and Gaara.

The shinobi's dispatched themselves as told by the Kage's. The large group maneuvered through the frantic crowds, jumping from roof to roof or running on the walls. In no time, they had reached the main gates of Konoha

The large twin doors bore the symbol of the fire country. Towering granite walls stretched out from the gate, forming a blockade between the village and the surrounding forest that lay between the border and the gate.

The shinobi stood ready, assuming their fighting stances. They could feel the ground start to tremble, alerting them of the large number of demons that were nearing.

But the noise and shaking earth suddenly but the shinobi held their stances, eyes darting around to search for any signs of the invaders.

"Looking for me human's?" They heard someone shout from above and looked up to see a man flying above the gates. His large grey wings flapped as he hovered over them.

Everyone couldn't help but gawk at the man hovering above the Konoha gates.

It was a known fact, that despite being downright horrid and disgusting beings on the inside, on the outside, demons were better looking than your average human and were –for lack of a better word-hot. Not beautiful, or handsome, just downright hot and oozing with sex appeal.

"My army is waiting outside your gates!" he bellowed.

"They will attack on my command but I wish to offer you a compromise! Surrender now and you will have to honor of being servants to us! Otherwise prepare to face a most painful death!"

It was silent for a while before Naruto shouted. "We won't go down without a fight!"

His shouts were backed up by the rest of the shinobi who had gathered there to fight for the freedom of the human race.

"You have chosen your fate!"

The flying man bellowed before descending. No sooner had he disappeared that the gates of Konoha began to shake as continuous pounding could be heard until finally there was a loud crash.

Even before the large cloud of dust had evaporated, the fighting had already begun. Screams and shouts and the clashing of weapons could be heard.

The shinobi were greatly outnumbered but somehow still managed to make clean, efficient kills. It was blatantly obvious that what the demons made up for in brawn, they lacked in brains.

Shikamaru thought hard as he fought. The shinobi were killing the demons easily, but the numbers never wavered. It was as if they never died, even after they had beheaded them.

Then it hit him, what if they really were not dying?"

Somehow they seemed to be coming back to life. He couldn't recognize them because of the armor they wore but that had to be the only answer.

"Chouji!" Shikamaru called out to his best friend.

"Somehow the demons aren't dying!"

"That explains things!" Chouji yelled back.

This was not good. If the demons couldn't be killed, the tables would soon turn on the shinobi once they started to tire out

It was then he realized that the leader of the army, the only one with wings, seemed to be absent in the ongoing battles. Immediately he scanned the area and spotted the man perched on top of one of the buildings, watching the horror unfold.

He was holding something under his arm that resembled a square box. He wondered if the artifact was somehow related to the resurrecting demons, but he couldn't be sure without getting his hands on it first.

But how _was_ he supposed to get his hands on it.

He lost his train of thought when an unusually loud scream sounded throughout the battlegrounds.

It was ear shattering and everyone covered their ears and stopped fighting, turning to face the source.

The scream had originated from one of the 2 girls standing on what used to be the main gates. Both of them looked no older than 18.

The one who had let out the scream had pale blue eyes and long platinum blonde hair, which had been pulled into a ponytail. She wore a purple and grey top that had kimono sleeves and a high turtleneck, which accentuated her already voluptuous chest.

It fastened in the middle of her back leaving her midriff as well as the rest of her back bare, from which sprouted a similar pair of grey wings to that of the army's leaders.

However, unlike the wings of the army commander which were twice the size of his 6ft 5 body. Hers were almost twice the size of her 5ft 6 body. Her bottoms were just a long piece of purple material covering her front and back with a pair of black sequined shorts underneath and her feet were bare.

The girl standing next to her had jade green eyes and shoulder length pink hair. She was wearing a triangular pink and white top that tied around her neck and back. She wore black knee length pants and had gloves over her hands.

Her feet too were bare and her wings were almost twice the size of her 5ft 7 body.

The leader flew down from his perch and came to land in front of the two girls.

"Sakarina! Illiyaino!"

"Have you come to help your father as I become the king of this land as well?" He spread out his arms with a grin.

"Of course father," the blonde one replied.

"We are always here to help," the other said before taking a step forward and throwing a punch at the man which sent him soaring straight through 3 buildings and coming to a stop when he hit the fourth.

The whole battleground was silent and nobody moved.

A punch like that would have probably killed or at least seriously injured any normal person but since he was a demon it was unlikely he would die but the two girls had hoped to at least injure in in some way.

So it came as a shock when he stood up and dusted himself off as if it had been just a light pat.

"Tsk tsk my dears. But I'm afraid you can't hurt me when I have this." He held up the box that Shikamaru had spotted earlier.

_**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you'll get to meet more people in the next one of course. Reviews and creative criticism are loved and appreciated. **_

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	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Well here is the next chapter. I'm glad to see that people have enjoyed the first and I hope you enjoy this one as well. If you feel that it's too jumbled in a way, please let me know. I just have so much I want to put in all at the same time.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**_

"_Tsk tsk my dears. But I'm afraid you can't hurt me when I have this." He held up the box that Shikamaru had spotted earlier._

"Sak is that..?" the blonde grabbed the arm of the girl next to her but kept her voice low.

"I think so." She answered.

"Maybe we should have gone to the others first."

"Knowing them, they'll already be on their way here, which also means that we are in a lot of trouble."

The two girls were interrupted when the leader of the army bellowed at them.

"My daughters, is this truly the side you have chosen?"

"We choose what's right, and what your doing is not!" the blonde one spoke up.

"Then you are not my children!"

"Seize the traitors!" pointing at his two daughters, he directed the command at his soldiers.

Immediately, the soldiers closests to the girls started to move toward them. The girls prepared to defend themselves but Naruto shocked everyone by jumping in and fighting alongside the two.

The rest of the shinobi took theit cue from him and the battle resumed just as quickly as it had been put on hold. Only this time, the two stray demons had joined in as well and the shinobi were somewhat confused.

Were they supposed to attack these two girls who seemed to be fighting with them?

"Watch out!" the blonde girl suddenly yelled as she jumped on Kiba, knocking him roughly onto his side as the sword that had been heading in his direction skimmed her sleeve.

"Keep your eyes open!" she said as she pushed herself off him, only to have a sharp set off teeth grab her collar and yank her off forcibly.

"Let go of me you oversized mutt!" she struggled and kicked in the white dogs grasp until he finally released her with a yelp.

"How dare you kick Akamaru!" Kiba yelled at her as he stabbed another demon soldier with a kunai.

"I saved your life, don't chastise me!" she yelled back.

Two demon soldiers were charging at her and she grabbed them and smashed their heads together, knocking them out since killing them would have been useless anyway.

The demon soldiers had encircled the ninja's. The few that remained outside the circle fought to get to the aid of their comrades. One of those was Sasuke, who was rudely interrupted when he heard someone yelling at him.

"Hey, duck!" While still trying to concentrate on his fight, his eyes moved to see the pink haired girl flying his way.

"What?" he murmured mostly to himself.

"Duck!" she collided with him and pushed his head onto the ground, his body had no choice but to follow suite.

Extremely angered by the fact that this demon had managed pinned him down, he drove his elbow straight into her mid-section. She winced, but barely budged.

Then he heard the familiar sound of a gust of wind draw near and turned his head to the side although all he could see were her pink tresses being blown around her face.

The girl finally retracted her wings which had been spread out covering both of them and he did a little double take at his surroundings.

The soldiers around him all had their heads cleanly sliced off their shoulders. Their bodies were strewn in a semi-circle around him with their heads close by.

The rest of the demons who were still alive froze.

The leader of the army hovered above the humans and demons that had temporarily ceased battle as all eyes turned to the direction where the blow to the demons had originated.

Two new additions to the mayhem stood atop of what used to be the main gates of the Fire Country.

The demon who had delivered the sharp blow of what had appeared to be a gust of wind had her hands on the silver hilt of her gleaming white sword. A curtain of dark hair which she had bound close to its end fell to her waist but in contrast her eyes were a very light shade of lavender.

She was dressed in a lavender so pale, it looked almost white; from her chinese style collared halter with intricate silver beading to her knee-length skirt and glistening white wings twice the size of her 5ft frame.

However, unlike the other three demons whose wings resembled that of a bat, hers consisted of a mass of feathers.

"Not more demons," Temari murmured.

"It's time you stopped this madness Lucian." the demon next to her spoke up.

She had big chocolate eyes and her long brown hair that had been pulled up into two identical buns on the top of her head. Her outfit was a one piece suit consisting of a backless long sleeved shirt which covered her arms all the way to the joints of her fingers as well as a pair of shorts.

The material clung to her 5ft 1 frame, from the back of which sprouted a feathery soft pair of extremely light brown wings twice her size. From her right ear hung a simple brown stone attached to a chain.

"Return to your lands and leave the humans be."

"I have no intention of doing such a thing." His laugh was sinister.

"Then I will have no choice but to cover your soldiers in dust and rubble." She took a step foreward.

"My army will just come back to life from beneath the earth. And what will you do then?" The leader smirked.

"Nothing, because they won't be coming back."

"What?" he seemed taken aback.

"Because the soldiers Hinata just killed aren't getting back up."

"Wha-" the leading demon looked down at the bodies that still remained lifeless on the ground when they should have begun to reassemble themselves.

"Wha-what's going on?" the man held out the circular object towards the corpses. He gasped when it all but glowed and slowly faded.

"I suggest you figure it out after your retreat. Unless of course you would like to leave without an army, of which we would be happy to oblige."

"You will feel the full extent of my powers in time to come. You can't hide forever!"

As he said this, a thick grey cloud began fall upon the battle grounds. The ninja's looked around, confused, but as a sudden gust of wind cleared the smoke, everyone gasped.

The entire demon army had vanished, with the exception of the four demons that had 'supposedly' come to the aid of the human.

"I'm sorry but he tends to have a flare for the dramatic." The blonde one spoke up.

"All four put your hands in the air!"

"Err…" she seemed taken aback at suddenly being yelled at.

"We have you surrounded and outnumbered!"

Tsunade stood in front of the remaining shinobi with her arms folded sternly across her chest. She wanted to regain control of her village, and she wanted it right away.

"You!" she pointed to the one known as Hinata.

"Put you weapon on the ground."

Silently the girl unstrapped the sword holster from her waist and laid the weapon at her feet before raising her hands just as the other demons had.

"What are _you _four still doing in the Fire Country?"

"We're here because we want to help-" The pink haired girl answered.

"We don't need your help!" Chouji shouted from her place near the front of the shinobi. He had his arm around Shikamaru's waist and was supporting the injured shinobi.

"Alright then," the demon in white finally spoke, her voice just barely loud enough for everyone close by to hear.

"Then the two men who were poisoned can slowly and painfully fade as the toxins start to take their toll."

"Are you the ones responsible for their injuries?" Naruto fumed.

"You can blame 'Lord of the demons' for that." The blonde answered, making quotation marks in the air.

"You have an antidote?" Neiji inquired.

"Not currently, but we can save them. The antidote is something we will need to discuss later," The one in brown replied.

"What are you playing at?" Tsunade pressed on.

"The longer we stand here, the less chance they have of surviving. I know you don't trust us, but we're the only chance they have," said the pink haired girl.

"If you make one wrong move-"

"We won't."

"We should go now." Hinata started again, her voice barely a whisper above the wind.

"Can I pick up my sword?"

"For security reasons we will be confiscating your weapon." Tsunade answered.

"I'm sure you understand."

"Of course." She nodded, but her voice sounded pained.

The demon in brown looked like she was about to step toward Hinata but the dark haired girl stepped back from her sword so as to allow Naruto, who was standing the closest , to pick it up.

Naruto easily swung the gleaming piece of metal over his shoulder.

"This thing is unbelievably light!" he exclaimed. "What is it made of?"

"Metal, from the gates of heaven."

"What?"

"Umm…" she seemed to be thinking as if looking for the right way to explain.

"Basically its enchanted metal." The one in brown answered for her.

Naruto didn't have a comment for that so he just gaped and finally walked on after her to gather in front of Tsunade as well.

"This way, but keep your hands where we can see them." Tsunade gestured them to follow, her mind reeling.

The four demons followed her, along with Gaara, Naruto and Sasuke,for security reasons.

The rest of the shinobi stayed back to helped the injured. The walk to the hospital was filled with unbearable silence; so much so that Naruto felt the need to break it or he thought he might suffocate.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto by the way." He introduced himself to Hinata.

The girl didn't reply right away and just when Naruto thought she wouldn't be bothered to introduce herself at all, she gave him a shy smile and bowed her head slightly.

"I'm Hinata Hvorostovsky."

"That's quite a mouthful. I've never heard a surname like that before."

"My family goes back a long time." Her voice was getting softer and Naruto had to strain to hear.

"What about your friends?"

"What about us?" the one in brown asked, taking the attention off Hinata.

"What are your names?" Naruto tried his best to smile.

Sasuke and Gaara on the other hand kept their faces straight and their senses alert, leaving Naruto to be the sociable one.

"I'm Tenten Lazarovici." She indicated to herself.

"And that." She pointed over to the girl with pink hair and then the one with blonde. "Is Sakura and Ino Yukasheva."

"So the two of you are sisters then?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes." Both girls answered.

"She's the old lady between us." Ino jabbed her thumb at Sakura.

"Shut up." The girl shoved her younger sister.

"Didn't that man refer to you as Sakarina and Illyaino?" Gaara suddenly asked.

"Yes, but the short forms will do." Ino answered.

"Traditionally, Vampire names tend to be long, but we usually just go by the shortered versions."

All conversation ceased as they had finally reached the waiting doors of the hospital.

Tsunade paused.

"I don't think you'll be able to get through with your wings." She pointed out.

"Oh, that's not a problem," Ino said.

The girls pulled their wings in close till they overlapped. Whilst Ino's and Sakura's started to vanish with a trail of grey smoke, Hinata's and Tenten's wings disappeared in a glow of gold.

The interior of the hospital was a frantic mess with nurses and doctors rushing around to rooms.

Tsunade led them pass the family members and friends of the injured that lines the corridors, sobbing and wailing and came to a stop in front of Gai and Lee's room.

"Kami Tsunade baa-chan, the smell got worse!" Naruto exclaimed as Tsunade slid the door to the ward open.

"Shut up dobe." Sasuke glared at Naruto. He was already feeling nauseated and he didn't need Naruto's yelling making it worse.

"What is that teme?" Naruto rubbed the spot on his head where Tsunade had hit him. Sasuke inched away while Gaara stared stoically at them.

Tsunade sighed before ushering the group into the room. She pulled back Lee's blankets, letting Sakura survey the damage.

"What do you know about our blood?" the pink haired girl asked abruptly.

"You people bleed?" Sasuke commented.

He was leaning against one of the walls, arms crossed over his chest in one of his proud stances.

Sakura didn't reply. Instead she scrutinized him before saying something to Ino in a weird language. The two girls smiled to themselves, enjoying their inside joke while Tsunade shot Sasuke a warning glare.

"No." she replied. "We don't possess any information on demon blood."

'I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that term." Hinata whispered.

"Well I apologize if I offended you in some way but isn't that what you are?"

"No, the term demon is merely an exaggeration."

"Just like human's have different races and clans, we have different races and clans as well, in our own way. The term demon is insulting to those of us who aren't savages. Humans have murderers and they are the monsters of your kind, but not all of you are monsters."

"That is very true, you are very wise." Tsunade gave her the respect she deserved.

"Thank you." The girl bowed her head shyly.

"So what are you then? And those two as well." Tsunade pointed to Sakura and Ino.

"What do you mean Tsunade baa-chan? Aren't they all the same?" Naruto asked.

"Didn't you notice before?" Gaara enquired.

"He's a baboon, he doesn't notice anything except the noodles in his ramen."

"Shut up idiot!"

"What differences did I miss?" Naruto turned back to the red head.

Gaara remained silent as he tried to think of a way to answer Naruto that wasn't rude or explicit.

"Their wings are different." He started.

"And" he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So are their…builds."

Sakura and Ino giggled.

Naruto returned his attention to the four girls and this time he really looked. Their wings had been put away but he remembered that two had been bat-like whilst the other two had been a mass of feathers.

But on observing their figures, Sakura's and Ino's tall, full, curvaceous bodies stood out, making Naruto avert his eyes to Hinata and Tenten before he began to flush.

In contrast, Tenten and Hinata were petite in size. Their features were softer as well, lacking the 'in- your- face' attractiveness of Sakura and Ino. Instead they were-

"Beautiful."

Naruto realized he had said that out loud but no one seemed to have noticed, or so he thought. Sakura, Ino and Tenten managed to hide their laughter and scoffs but Hinata just tried to hide her blush.

"So then what are you" Sasuke asked.

"Sakura and I are vampirs."

"Hinata and I are part of a clan of fallen angels."

"Fallen angels as in…" Naruto pointed in a general upward direction.

"Now is not the time for stories." Tenten spoke up.

"She's right, what about your blood?" Tsunade asked.

"If you let us, Ino and I can give them our blood and it will help to heal their arms and legs, take away most of the pain."

"And the poison?"

"Only the antidote can fully cure them."

Tsunade contemplated their offer. Lee and Gai were definitely in a lot of pain. Hell! She felt pain just looking at them. If these two girls could take it away, she wasn't going to stop them.

"Alright, do it."

_**A/N: Thank you to those who reviews the first chapter and I hope you like the second one as well. Reviews and creative criticism are always loved and appreciated.**_

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	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**_

___"Alright, do it."_

"Before we do," Ino started.

"You have to know that if they die with our blood in their system, they _will _come back to life, but as a vampir."

"They won't die!" Naruto exclaimed.

Tsunade nodded stiffly. If Naruto had faith in them, so did she.

"Okay then."

Ino moved around to stand beside Lee while Sakura remained next to Gai. Both girls brought their left wrists up to their mouths, opening them to reveal a pair of canines that were slightly longer and sharper than normal.

They bit into their wrists before placing them at Lee and Gai's mouths which they had opened slightly. The two girls had also taken the liberty of tilting both Lee and Gai's heads backwards so that the blood could trickle down their throats.

As it did, the damaged skin and muscle tissue on their injured limbs began to repair itself till they were without even a scar. Once they were healed, the girls pulled back their wrists.

Tsunade, Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara stared in awe. Tsunade walked up to touch Lee's leg, not being able to completely believe what had just happened.

She thanked the girls.

"That was amazing!" Naruto cheered.

"Does your blood possess the same ability as well?" Gaara asked Tenten and Hinata.

"No." Tenten replied. "Only Vampirs can do this sort of thing."

"I would offer you gauze and bandages but I assume your wrists are already healed."

"That's right." Ino showed her wrist which was back to normal except for a small blood stain.

Tsunade scrutinized them silently before speaking up.

"The way your bodies work really is fascinating."

"Maybe to you, but to us its normal and humans are the fascinating ones," Ino said.

"The way you manage to harness and use chakra."

"You know about chakra?" Naruto asked.

"Just like you've been studying us, we've been studying you." Sakura added.

"We've just been studying you longer."

"How old are all of you exactly?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask.

"Well, we are all pretty young by immortal standards. Ino is forty-five and I am fifty."

All the shinobi in the room stood shocked.

Tsunade stared at them a little enviously. "I know I shouldn't be surprised but it's a whole different matter when you look no more than eighteen but are actually - "

"Around your age Tsunade-baachan." Naruto cut in with a snicker, which earned him a very hard 'thawck' on his blonde head.

"What about you two?" Tsunade asked Hinata and Tenten.

"We're both sixty" She indicated to herself and then Tenten.

"And it keeps getting better." She muttered, which earned her another snicker from Naruto.

Tenten just shrugged nonchalantly while Hinata smiled shyly.

"What now Tsunade-sama?" Gaara asked her.

Tsunade cleared her throat and resumed her composed demeanour. "Now if you don't mind, I would like some answers as to why the Vampirs are attacking us, what was that artifact that enabled the soldiers to keep reviving themselves and," she looked at Lee and Gai "what are we to do about an antidote?"

"There are a lot of things that need to be explained," Tenten started "So why don't we go elsewhere to talk and leave these men to rest."

"We can talk in my office. Come." Tsunade motioned to everyone.

"Oh, before we go." Sakura spoke up and everyone turned to look at her but the pink haired girl faced Hinata.

"Could you reset my ribs, it's not heeling properly." Sakura lifted up her top slightly to reveal a bruise over her right rib area."

"Of course Sakura-kun."

Placing both hands on Sakura's ribs, Hinata felt for anything out of place. When her fingers skimmed over a rib that was sticking out slightly to the side, she warned Sakura to brace herself before pushing into place which made Sakura wince and clutch her side but the girl thanked Hinata nonetheless.

"How did you injure yourself?" Hinata asked.

"Probably in the fight, I just didn't realize." Sakura lied, but only one other person in the room knew since he was the one who had injured her by driving his elbow into her ribs when she had actually been trying to save his life.

As the group filtered out of the room Naruto called out to Hinata.

"Here." He handed her back her sword.

"Thank you." She re-tied it around her waist and the two of them re-joined the group as they continued down the hall back to the entrance of the hospital with the girls receiving stared from various medics, which they blatantly ignored.

As they made their way through the streets, which were once again beginning to fill with people, Tenten started to elaborate on what exactly was going on.

"The poison comes from the Vladivostok spider. They are very rare and extremely hard to find but every ten years they come out of hiding to breed."

"They're pretty harmless actually unless of course you personally harness their venom for use, but an antidote can easily be manufactured from their venom and we just happen to have a few on hand in the Olympic Valley, where we live."

"So it's just a matter of getting them to the Valley."

"You don't live in the Sahara?' Naruto asked.

"Hinata and I don't, but Sakura and Ino used to, since the Vampir castle is there."

"Used to?" Sai questioned.

"It's a long story."

"I hope I'm not overstepping by asking this but how do you know each other so well when you are of different species'."

"That's true." Ino answered. "But we've got cousins living in Olympic Valley who are the same age as Hinata and Tenten, and they are almost like our foster parents." Ino laughed lightly at her little joke.

"I also have to ask, how come you were able to kill the soldiers when we could not?"

"Actually, we didn't really know if we could kill them either. It was a shot in the dark." Hinata answered.

"We're here."

By now the group had reached the Hokage tower and Tsunade led them up the steps and into the large building on top if which the faces of the previous and current Hokage's were carved into the solid stone, miraculously still in tact.

"You still haven't answered my question about the strange artefact that Lucian had been carrying." Tsunade said to the girls as they entered her office.

"About that," Tenten started, "We'll need access to your archives, there may be something in there that can help us explain it better."

Tsunade seemed to contemplate this for a moment, but finally she nodded and moved to stand behind her desk. There, she grabbed hold of the knob on the first desk drawer and pulling it out slightly, turned it three times to the left, and four times to the right before pushing it back in.

One of the bookshelves in the corner of the circular room rattled a little before sliding off to the side, revealing an archway leading off to a long dark pathway.

Tsunade pulled out a box of matches from another drawer. Walking over to the archway, she reached into the darkness, her hand barely visible as it seemed to mould with the black of the tunnel.

Drawing the match against its box, she dipped the flame into the old-styled torch, setting it alight before shaking the matchstick to put out the flame.

"Watch your step, its steep," she said and delved into the darkness, the shinobi and demons trailing behind her.

The fire in the torch flickered now and then, casting odd shadows against the icy concrete walls. The stairs were solid stone and the moist surroundings of the cave-like path left algae and moss growing on them.

When they reached the end of the stairwell, a stone wall stood before them, stretching from floor to ceiling. There was a rectangular shape carved into a portion of it that somewhat resembled a door. Inside the rectangle, a zigzag pattern had been carved deeply into the wall.

In the centre and off to the right where the zigzag touched the perimeter of the rectangle, a piece of stone had been chipped off and was big enough to place a finger on, which was what Tsunade did. She bit off a piece of skin on her thumb and squeezed a few drops of her blood onto the platform.

Her blood slowly flowed from the wound, following the engraved pattern until it touched the bottom. From there, it seemed to vanish into the floor but no sooner had it disappeared when a silver liquid began to slink its way up the pattern from the floor.

It continued its crawl up the wall until it touched the ceiling. Once it did, the piece rectangle wall sunk back further into itself and slid aside, creating a path of which they followed Tsunade through. The path led into a room just as dark as the stairway of which they had just come through.

"There is no electricity down here and the room seals off all chakra so everybody grab a match and light up the torches on the walls." Tsunade said and held out the box of matches she was carrying.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Hinata said, squeezing her way through to the front of the group.

"Ignire incendiu." She murmured.

One by one the lamps began to light up, casting a dim glow over the large room. The room was lined neatly with tall bookshelves stocked to the brim with old books and folders. Long wooden tables with chairs stood in the space between each bookshelf.

"What the…how did you do that without chakra?" Naruto asked, stunned.

"Magic."

The blonde just laughed.

"I-I'm serious." Hinata stared at him humourlessly before diverting her attention to her feet.

Naruto immediately shut his mouth but no sooner had his lips closed over his teeth that he opened it again.

"But how did you just do that without chakra?" he exclaimed.

A small smile crept onto Hinata's lips and she looked back up.

"Like I said, magic."

"Really?" Tsunade questioned. "There's such a thing as magic?"

Hinata nodded.

"You'll find that there is a lot more to this world beyond the Sahara."

"I've been beyond the Sahara but I've never encountered anything unusual by human standards," Sasuke said.

"Then you've never gone far enough." Sakura said to him.

Sasuke shrugged. "Why are we here anyway?"

"Yes, what are you looking for?" Tsunade asked.

"Do you have any documents on hand that date back a thousand years or so?"

"Of course not!" Tsunade answered. "Our documents only go back two hundred hundred years at most. Why would you need something so old?"

"We're looking for something that may contain important clues to help stop Lucian."

"The Vampir king?" Gaara clarified.

Tenten nodded.

"And what makes you think it's here?" Tsunade questioned. She already felt a headache coming on, she was getting too old for this.

"Back in the vampir palace, Sakura and I had been snooping around and happened across the box that you saw Lucian holding. We opened it and found a pick and silver gauze robe which had been very badly torn up, but when we told Tenten, Hinata and some others about it, they had never heard of such a thing."

"However, there is a human who lives in the Olympic Valley who claimed that he had seen a picture of the robe we described. It just so happened that he'd only seen it in a childrens book centuries ago."

"We think that book might be here because Konoha was built over his old village."

"Hold on just a moment, are you saying that this man is currently still alive…now?" Tsunade was baffled.

Tenten did not answer but instead shifted her feet slightly and stared down at them.

Hinata looked at the brunette quizzically before replying to Tsunade in her stead. "Yes."

"And he's a human?"

"Yes."

"Any chance you could explain that for me again."

"Time freezes for any human living in the Olympic Valley."

"So your saying that if you were to live in this Olympic Valley forever, you would live forever, like an immortal?" Naruto asked.

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it."

"And if you left?" Gaara spoke up.

"You would resume aging as per normal."

"Well even if this man had really lived here before, we don't have any documents dating back that long ago."

"Maybe not in this room, but there is another room under us." Tenten said suddenly.

_**A/N: Once again thanks to everyone who has been reading and I'm glad to hear that you guys are enjoying the story. Reviews and creative criticism are loved and appreciated.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**__._

"_Maybe not in this room, but there is another room under us." Tenten said suddenly._

"Are you certain?" Tsunade questioned. "I've had people scan this room dozens of times but what you see here is all we've ever found."

Squatting down, Tenten laid a hand over the grimy stone floor.

"That's because it has been completely sealed off."

"Probably information that's not supposed to be found." Ino added with a suggestive grin.

"But how do we get down there?" Naruto asked, remembering the fact that the room sealed off all chakra and therefore all means of getting into the lower chamber without a hassle and without wasting time.

"I can move the earth and create a passageway for us."

"Exactly how do you _know _that there is a room below this one?" Sasuke casually questioned Tenten. "Is this magic again?"

"Yes and no. I am affiliated with the earth, and this allows me to control it and also use it as a sort of a sixth sense." The girl explained.

It was truly starting to become apparent to the shinobi that whatever they knew or had studied about demons or any other super natural being was considerably lacking.

Once the group had moved back from Tenten to give her the necessary amount of space, she began to move the earth to create a passage for them. Dragging her right foot across the floor, she made a circular shape before pushing her foot out to the side, which created a gap in the floor in front of her. Bending down, she gave the floor a sharp jab, creating a staircase-like structure for them to climb down.

"Could I borrow that?" Tenten indicated to the torch that Tsunade was carrying.

In reply, the woman handed her torch over to Tenten. The group watched as she ventured down the flight of steps, slowly disappearing into the shadows.

Suddenly there was a loud gasp.

"Tenten?" Hinata panicked.

"Hurry, you guys need to see this."

Everyone in the room looked at each other, but Sakura and Ino were the first to race down the opening and into the lower chamber with the rest of the group following behind.

One gasp after another could be heard as they all gazed in astonishment at the room around them. Unlike the library above, which had been pitch black when they had first entered, this room was alight with its own otherworldly glow.

The room was made entirely out of white crystal that had somehow managed to remain clean and untainted despite all the years of being hidden deep underground. Large columns stretched from the floor to the ceiling and were almost completely encased in vines that were giving off their own light.

In between these columns stood giant, crystal shelves, containing books that were coated in a thick layer of dust and grime.

"There are a lot of old books down here." Tsunade stated. "How are you going to find whatever it is you are looking for?"

"A simple tracking spell should work." Tenten replied.

Bending down, she picked up a fistful of dirt and held it up to her lips.

"_From the dust hence used to seek, bring me what I wish to keep_."

Once she'd said the spell, Tenten opened her fist and blew on the dirt that lay there. It hovered in front of her for a moment before moving off between the stacks with Tenten following after it.

"I'll be right back."

"What is this?" Gaara asked, tentatively resting a hand on one of the columns.

"The room is made out of Belyi Zemli. Directly translated it means White of the Earth. The creepers are Eternity Vines." Hinata answered.

"This room must be over thousands of years old, how are these vines still alive? And everything looks like it was built just yesterday."

"The vines give off their own light, so they also take light from each other in order to photosynthesis. If they have a source of water – which they probably do from further underground – they can go on living for millennia, hence the name."

"As for the crystals, they are just naturally repellent to dirt and age."

Gaara pressed his hand fully onto the crystal, admiring its smooth texture and relishing in how cool it felt against his warm palm. Every structure in Suna was made out of hard, coarse rock, and he'd never felt anything like this crystal before.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Tenten said as she walked back to the group. Under her arm, she'd tucked a leather bound book that looked as if it was about to fall apart at any moment.

"Sadly, Belyi Zemli doesn't exist anymore. Once humans discovered what else they could do with it, they started grinding large amounts of it and blending it with other minerals to make things like carbon and steel. It's just not the same after that."

"Tenielle…" Hinata shook her head.

Tenten looked like she was about to open her mouth to rebut something but Sakura suddenly asked her a question.

"Is that the book?" She jumped in, distracting Tenten.

"Yes."

"So that will explain everything to us?" Sasuke clarified.

"That's what we're hoping for." Sakura answered.

"Let's go back to my office." Tsunade said to them. "We can talk about it there."

The group left the pristine crystal room and made their way back up the dark tunnel. The hidden door that they had come through originally had closed behind them so Tsunade had to open it again.

Bringing her torch up to the wall so that she could see clearly, Tsunade felt around for a lever and pulled on it, opening the door once more. Waiting in her office were Neiji, Sai and Kiba.

"Tsunade-sama…" Kiba said, sounding relieved.

"What are you three doing here?" she asked them as she stepped out of the passageway.

"Well you were gone for quite awhile so we came to see what was happening." Neiji replied.

"In other words, he came to see if we'd killed you yet." Tenten added, stepping into the office as well.

Hinata shook her head at the girl once more.

"What? He was probably thinking it anyway."

"Eto ne opravdanie," Hinata said in the language that they had grown up with. _That's no excuse._

"I was, actually," Neiji said bluntly.

"See." Tenten pointed out.

Tsunade was just about to jump in when she heard a loud groan. It had come from Ino who had just stepped out of the musty, dank passageway and into the uncontaminated air of Tsunade's office when she picked up the strong smell of blood on Sai.

Ino immediately covered her mouth and nose with her hands and retreated back into the tunnel, knocking Sakura off balance. The pinkette stumbled backwards and would have lost her footing if Sasuke had not steadied her from behind.

"Ino!" Sakura yelled at her sister.

"I…I can't." Ino shook her head profusely.

"What's wrong?" Naruto questioned.

"It's the blood." Hinata motioned to Sai's hands.

"Sorry." Sai wiped his hands on the sides of his trousers.

"I was just carrying the injured to the hospital."

Sakura nudged Ino forward slightly.

"If I can take it, so can you." Sakura gave Ino one last shove.

Stumbling forward, the girl glared at Sakura.

"As I was about to say before," Tsunade started. "The girls have actually been very helpful and there is nothing to worry about."

"However before we continue, I believe a new set of introductions are in order."

Tsunade quickly introduced the girls to Neiji, Sai and Kiba before moving on to the matter at hand.

"Okay." Tsunade sat down at her desk and linked her hands in front of her face, resting her chin atop them.

"You said that this book might have some clues?"

"Yes." Tenten answered, placing the book on Tsunade's table so that she could take a look. "In a sense."

Picking the old book up very gently, Tsunade flipped through it, scanning the pages.

"This is a children's book." She stated.

"Well yes, but as I mentioned, its the closest thing we have to any answers right now."

"What makes you so sure?"

Tenten and Hinata looked at each other, seeming to contemplate a united approval amongst themselves with head nods before either girl answered Tsunade's question.

"When we receieved word from Sakura and Ino about what they had seen at the palace, - the description of the box and the robe - we relayed this message to our informant in the Olympic Valley." Tenten finally replied.

"He told us that their description of the items sounded akin to something he had seen in an old story book once, many years ago, before Konoha had even come to be, and he had lived in the village that had been built on this land."

"Don't kid with me." Tsunade rested her elbows on her table and linked her hands together, resting her chin on top of them as she stared at Tenten in disbelief.

"This man must be centuries old!"

"He's close to a thousand years actually."

"And he's human?"

"Yes."

"How is that possible?"

"Time stops for any human residing in the Olympic Valley, biologically I mean."

Tsunade sat back in her chair.

"Interesting."

"It is a secret we would like to keep under wraps. You can imagine how something like this could affect the whole balance of life if it were to get out."

Tsunade paused for a moment before nodding. "You have my word."

"You're probably thinking about moving there huh Baa-chan, so you won't have to worry about looking saggy and wrinkled." Naruto squaked.

A balled up piece of paper went flying at his head.

"…Anyway." Tenten continued, "He'd told us that the book where he'd seen the image fitting the description of the robe had been kept in the underground archives of his village temple. His mother had been the priestess, so he'd grown up studying the scriptures and books in the temple."

"May I?" Taking the book back from Tsunade, Tenten turned to a certain page before showing it to her once more. It was a picture of an elegant, flowing robe. Once, it may have been vividly coloured in, but now it only held remnants of pink and silver as well as smudged out portions of an intricate design.

"Sakura, Ino." Tenten called to them. "Does this look like the robe you saw?"

The two girls walked over to take a look.

"Pretty much," Ino said, her voice slightly muffled by the hand that she still held over her mouth.

"There's a short story about it here." Tsunade indicated to the page next to the picture.

Picking the book back up, she started to read the faded text out loud.

'_Seeing the bats be given immortal human forms, the wolves grew envious. Filled with jealousy, they stole the garment of a celestial maiden who had come to earth to bathe. Celestial maidens were spirits of the moon who were always dressed in beautiful pink and silver robes, which represented their powers. The celestial maiden could not return home to the moon without her robe so the wolves threatened to destroy it unless the maiden granted their wish. Left without a choice, the maiden agreed. However, the cunning and angered maiden also cursed the wolves, making them slaves to the full moon. Every full moon, they would undergo a painful transformation back into their wolf forms. Furious, the wolves waited till the celestial maiden returned once more and they stole her garment, destroyed it, and hid it from her. Then, they too hid from man and called themselves Werewolves.'_

She stopped reading and looked up to find Sakura and Ino gawking at each other. Both girls grabbed the book from Tsunade and re-read the page.

"Girls!" Hinata chastised them for being so rude but Ino just waved her off.

"Our mother used to tell us stories like this when we were kids," Ino said. "I completely forgot about them!"

Tenten and Hinata looked at each other questioningly.

"How did your mother know these stories?" Tenten asked.

"It's part of Vampir folklore, just myths and legends told to children."

"Looks like its turning out to be more fact than fiction though." Gaara stated.

"Is there anything else you can remember that might be of help?" Hinata questioned them.

"Kind of." Sakura replied.

"This," she indicated to the page. "Is only one part of a three part story that our mother used to tell us."

"So maybe…" Sakura flipped to the previous page. "Ah, its here."

On the new page was a smudged out picture of what looked like a jeweled dagger. Next to the picture was another short story that Sakura read aloud.

'_Vampirs started off as bats. When man came about they envied man, envied how man could do what they wanted and rule over many lands. Desperate to be able to do as man did, they sought out Hades, the guardian of the underworld. In exchange, they gave Hades what he had always wanted, a place of Earth to call his own. So the bats gave up their home in the forest and were granted the bodies of man. Unlike a normal man though, the bats were granted bodies that were stronger and faster than that of man. Some also retained their ability to fly. However, the magic of Hades was tainted with darkness and the bodies of the bats were slaves to the darkness. They could not spend long hours in the sun because it made them weak and weary. They also found themselves drawn to the blood of other humans. As time passed, they realised that they did not age, so the bats that lived with humans and knew any humans watched as everyone around them continued to pass on. Angered by the suffering that Hades had caused them, they took revenge on him by killing him with his own dagger.'_

"Is that really true?" Naruto asked.

"The portion about the sun and blood, partly. But everything else," Sakura shrugged. "No one really knows. Like Ino said, its all just myths that's have been passed down."

"You said that there were three stories?" Tsunade clarified.

"Yes." Sakura turned flipped past the story about the Werewolves and onto another new page.

Another picture donned the page that she had turned to. This one was an image of a woman in a long, heavy cloak and dress. She was holding a staff in one hand. Like the other pictures in the book, this one was also faded with age.

Sakura started to read the last story.

_The dogs watched the bats and wolves with pity and did not get involved with them. However, one dog had a secret. He was passionately in love with a beautiful woman but could never do anything about it since he was a dog after all. Seeing his sadness, a sorcerer approached him one day and asked him if he would like to become human but the dog humbly refused. For this, the sorcerer rewarded him by giving him and his kind the bodies of man. The sorcerer also blessed him and his love with an exceptionally long life._

"That's basically it." Sakura finished.

"I still don't see how all this ties together," Sasuke said.

"Honestly, neither do we but at least it's a start. For whatever reason, Lucian has a robe that fits the description of the one in this story. Whether or not that is a coincidence, for all we know it could be the tied to his indestructible army."

"Not completely indestructible since Hinata was able to take them down." Ino mentioned.

"Only more questions we need to find the answeres to." Hinata added.

"Isn't there anyone who might know how these stories may be related to the robe in that box?" Tsunade asked. "Or is it even possible that the robe in the story is really the robe in the box?"

"I suppose, but we can't exactly ask the Vampirs," Tenten said.

"What about the Werewolves?" Sai suggested. "There was a story about them too."

"Out of the question." She flattened his suggestion.

"Why?" Sai, as usual, overstepped his boundaries and pried further.

Tenten stared at him for a moment. Finally, she moved to lift up her bangs, revealing three distinct scars that stretched her across her forehead.

"Out of the question." She repeated herself. "They're ill-tempered and hostile, as you can see." She let her bangs drop.

Neiji could not help but think of the cursed seal that marred his own forehead and raised a hand to touch the Konoha headband that he used to covered it.

"We'll take the book back with us and consult some of the Elders in the Olympic Valley. They may know something." Hinata told Tsunade.

"And we'll go through our own library as well and see what we can find. The dog demons may also be of help."

Tsunade nodded, expressing her understanding.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune burst into her office.

"What now?" Tsunade stood up and slammed her hands on her desk in exasperation.

Walking back out into the hallway, Shizune motioned to someone, signaling them to come forward. Two Chuunin appeared alongside Shizune with a woman and a teenage boy – possibly her son – in tow.

"These two were caught trying to sneak out of the village." Shizune explained.

"They were carrying this as well." Shizune tossed a large pouch onto Tsunade's table, spilling out its contents.

Sakura picked up one of the gold coins from the pouch, examining it. The coin bore a crest with the symbol of two bats facing each other and the emblem of a 'V' on top of it.

"This is the royal Vampir seal." Sakura stated.

"Spies!" Tsunade yelled.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Hey all, thank you to those who have kept up constant reviews and given me some tips, I really appreciate it and I hope you continue.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

"_This is the royal Vampir seal." Sakura stated._

"Spies!" Tsunade glared at the two traitors. They were both held firmly in place by two Chuunin, who had clamped the prisoners' hands behind their backs.

It was then that Ino noticed the scarf tied around the woman's neck and walked up to the lady, who only proceeded to stare at her in a sort of daze. Ino grabbed the scarf and tugged it off the woman, revealing a neck that was littered with numerous bite marks.

Some had already healed to form puckered pink lines while others were still fresh and in the process of healing.

Ino grimaced. "Blood-whore"

"Don't call my mother that!" the boy yelled and struggled, attempting to break free.

He'd just managed to get his hands out of the Chuunins grip when Sai moved quickly to grab him once more. He continued to struggle but both the Chuunin and Sai held him still till he finally gave up.

Ino stood in front of the boy and, using a finger, pushed back his upper lip. Just like Ino and Sakura, this boy had longer, sharper canines.

"Just what I suspected, you're a wingless half breed." Ino pulled her hand back and wiped it on her shorts.

The shoulders of the boy slumped forward slightly, as if he was ashamed.

"You will all pay for betraying your father!" the woman suddenly exclaimed, but her words were slow and slurred, as if she were drunk.

"Has she been drugged?" Tsunade asked.

"No." Shizune replied.

"It's because she's been bitten too many times." Ino explained.

"A Vampirs saliva contains aphrodisiacs that can give a person a high, almost like a drug, but just like a drug, its addictive, and this can happen." Ino pointed at the woman.

"Shizune, lock these traitors up. I will question them later." 

"Yes Tsunade-sama."

Adhering to orders, Shizune and the two Chuunin that had accompanied her left the room, bringing the woman and her half human, half Vampir son along.

"Back to business." Tsunade sat back down.

"Yes," Tenten started. "We will take your comrades back to the Olympic Valley and give them the antidote. They can recover there and will be escorted back here safely once they are fully healed."

"I want to help," Naruto suddenly said.

"This fight involves us as well and we cannot just sit by and watch others put their lives down."

Tsunade just looked at the girls and they in turn looked at each other.

"All right." Tenten agreed. "We have to leave now though. There is one more stop we need to make before the sun goes down.

"What is this extra place?" Tsunade asked.

"The Vampir palace," Ino answered. "My mother is still there."

Tsunade nodded. "Okay."

"Naruto, Sai, Sasuke, Kiba, Neiji, I will assign this mission to the five of you."

The boys steadily agreed.

"Kiba, since you were teammates with Shino you know how to decode the messages from his bugs am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I will be using that to keep in touch with you so I expect updates."

"Sure."

"Pardon me, but I would like to volunteer my services as well." Gaara spoke up.

"As Naruto said, we are all involved, including Suna. My siblings will act as my substitutes back home."

"It's settled then. Since you can't possible carry Gai and Lee all the way, I will make sure to have horses prepared for all of you."

"As for the girls…" Tsunade looked to them.

"Tenten and I will have to lead so we'll ride as well if you don't mind." Hinata said softly.

"We'll fly." Sakura spoke for herself and Ino.

"Come then, I'll show you to the stables."

-000-

Hinata lightly stroked the chestnut gelding that the stable hand had presented her with as she watched Naruto awkwardly try to mount his own brown one. It was apparent that the horse did not like Naruto very much since, every time he put a foot in the stirrups, the horse would trot forward and he'd take a fall backwards.

"Would someone _please _help him onto the horse!" Sakura finally yelled after his fourth attempt, hands on her hips, wings unfurled and looking extremely ticked off with her forehead scrunched up.

"Careful Sakura, or your going to get wrinkles on that giant forehead of yours." Ino teased her.

Sakura snorted ungraciously.

One of the stable hands hurried over to hold Naruto's horse steady so that the embarrassed, red – faced man could mount it.

"Sasuke – kun." A blue – eyed, porcelain featured girl with perfectly curled blonde ringlets stood at the entrance to the stables. Her eyes darted suspiciously from the girls, to Sasuke, and lastly to the hay covered wooden planking of the stable floor.

"Weren't you going to say goodbye?"

One of her stiletto clad feet slid forward as she seemed to debate whether or not it was worth her while to step into the horse muck, but decided against it.

"How did she make it all the way here in those shoes?" Tenten said to Ino in a hushed voice.

"My question is how she even managed to squeeze herself into that top." Ino snickered, referring to the tight tank top that accentuated the curves of her petite figure and showed more cleavage than necessary.

Sighing, Sasuke dismounted his horse and strolled over to the girl. Putting a hand under her chin, he tilted her head up and brought his lips down to hers, kissing her in a way that should have been done only behind closed doors.

As everyone present diverted their attention elsewhere, Sakura turned hers to the sun, which was beginning to dip precariously low in the sky. Exhaling rather loudly, she turned back to the couple.

"This is ridiculous." She shook her head and started towards the apparently unabashed pair.

"Sak…No, I know what your thinking…Sakura!"

Ino had noticed her sister move and made a quick grab for her arm but Sakura yanked it back roughly and marched over to the couple, arms crossed with one foot tapping impatiently.

Sensing her presence, Sasuke pulled away and stared at Sakura with one eyebrow raised.

"Well I don't mean to interrupt, but I think it's about time we got this show on the road."

"Who are you?"

Sakura had registered the fact that someone had addressed her, but instead of turning to face addressee, she continued to eye Sasuke curiously. Being at such close proximity to him, Sakura had come to realize that even though he seemed to be looking in her direction, his gaze also seemed unfocused.

Sometimes he seemed to be looking squarely at her whereas other times, his eyes would glaze over and he'd be looking past her instead.

"Excuse me." This time the voice sounded increasingly annoyed.

"Sorry, what?" Sakura blinked and finally turned to face the doll – like girl.

"I said," she tore has hands away from Sasuke's chest and placed them on her hips in an attempt to look intimidating, but Sakura's height alone trumped the dolls stance. "Who are you?"

Amused, Sakura bared her fangs. "Your worst nightmare."

"Sakura…" Hinata warned from behind.

One of the girl's hands flew back to grab Sasuke's chest in shock and fear while Sakura continued to glare at her.

Sasuke merely removed her hand and replaced them at her sides.

"Goodbye Mitsuki, go back to the safe houses," he said curtly.

The girl seemed taken aback but nodded nonetheless and turned to leave.

"What a romantic." Tenten murmured cryptically as Sasuke mounted his dapple-grey mare.

Once everyone was securely seated on his or her horse, the medic – nin present carefully hoisted Lee onto the front of Sai's saddle. Due to the state that he was in, he could barely keep himself upright so Sai had to ride and support him at the same time.

Although he was in a similar state, Gai was too big to for Neiji to support on the front of his saddle, so he was seated behind instead, where he would have to cling to consciousness as well as Neiji's waist.

"So what's the plan?" Naruto asked as they left the stables and trotted to the front gates, excitement and adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"First we go to the castle to find my mother." Ino answered.

"And then we head off to the Olympic Valley." Hinata continued. "From there we'll decide what to do next. Our home is in the Valley as well so we can retire there."

Everyone nodded.

"Alright, we have about an hour until sunset which is enough time to make it to the castle if we're fast. The ride there should be easy in the desert lands but it's when the sun goes down and we hit the forests that it starts getting dangerous," Tenten said.

The colossal mess that had been stirred by the fighting at the front gates had not been cleared yet, but a small path had been created so as to make it easier for people to maneuver.

Much to her surprise, Tsunade extended a hand out to Sakura.

"Thank you." She dipped her hand in a quick, short motion before quickly releasing her hold on Sakura's. At a loss for words, Sakura merely gave a small smile in return.

Finally lining up, the group set off at break neck speed with Tenten leading them and Hinata pushing from behind, allowing no one to falter as they pounded on through the cool shade of the Fire Country undergrowth. Ino and Sakura flanked them at a higher altitude, acting as lookouts while Akamaru stayed close at their feet.

The sun was already beginning its slow descent toward the horizon, urging Tenten to ride even faster.

They sped on until the green trees of the Fire Country had disappeared behind them and all they could see was endless desert lands. Finally, Tenten came to a stop, pulling hard on the reins of her horse.

The sun was now a large orange sphere just barely touching the horizon. With night descending soon, a chill was already beginning to settle upon the desert.

"What are we waiting for?" Neiji asked as he moved beside Tenten.

"For the sun to hit the half way mark on the horizon." She replied, pointing straight ahead.

"Why?"

"Just watch."

Indeed, once the sun had dipped half way below the invisible line where the sky met the ground, a large shape began to form in the distance. At first it was translucent and unclear but soon it began to solidify.

"The castle only shows itself at sunset or sunrise," Tenten said, before giving her horse her swift kick and speeding off again.

"Amazing." Naruto muttered as the group started off again.

As they neared the castle, they were slightly taken aback by the enormous size of the sandy gold building with its tall columns and amethyst crowed towers. The castle stood out in the vast, empty desert, its golden walls gleaming in the deep orange hue, cast by the setting sun. The castle's exterior was opulent, decorated in jewels and precious stones.

Despite growing up in the golden castle, Sakura could never decide if the building was beautiful, or overly gaudy. She'd never liked it's cold, stone walls and gigantic halls that were littered with decorations she was never allowed to touch, unless she wanted to face her fathers wrath. It had potential, she thought, but looked like it was trying too hard, and that destroyed the beauty of it. Then again, perhaps it was perfect in its own right in how it reflected her father's greed.

A few meters from the wide stone steps that led to the front corridor, Tenten stopped again. The girls who had been flying above them also dropped down from the air. Hinata trotted her horse up to Tenten's side.

"What is wrong?" Gaara asked.

"The front guards are missing." Hinata explained.

Immediately, Ino took off, flying past the stairs and through the columns that supported the upper part of the building and led into the enormous main hall.

"Damn it Ino," Sakura cussed, taking off after her sister with the group following behind.

Upon reaching the steps, she climbed them two at a time. However, she halted when she reached the top.

"Something smells," she said to the girls when they came up behind her.

Turning to her right, she saw that most of the floor was covered with small chunks of a gooey, pale pink substance. The same substance covered the floor on her left. Before anyone could utter anything, a piercing scream filled the stale desert air.

Spreading her wings, Sakura pushed past the group and into the main hall where she breezed up the grand stairway. However, it was impossible to fly in the halls of the second floor, so she retracted her wings and sped off in the direction of Ino's scream.

She found her sister standing stock still in front of her mother's chambers, the double doors thrown open.

Sakura moved to touch her sister's shoulder and the girl immediately crumbled to her knees, sobbing. Taking a proper look at her mother's room, Sakura saw that it had been completely and utterly wrecked, the same substance was spread almost all over the floor.

By this time the rest of the group had caught up with them. Hinata gasped, covering her mouth with both hands when she took sight of the room.

"W-who did this?" Naruto gasped

"That's what we'd like to know too." Tenten spoke up.

Sakura stooped down so that she was at eye level with Ino.

"Ino…"

The girl in question had covered her face with her hands and was repeatedly muttering 'she's not here' as she shook her head from side to side.

Suddenly, Tenten shifted her feet slightly and blanched.

"Sakura…" she started, but the girl was too busy trying to console Ino and urge her to move.

"Sakura…" she added once more with increased urgency. The pinkette ignored her as she attempted to pry Ino's hands from her face.

"SAKURA!" this time Tenten yelled.

"WHAT?" Sakura snapped, whipping around to face the brunette.

"Grab Ino and move!"

"Wha - "

"We've got company!"


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

__ _Suddenly, Tenten shifted her feet slightly and blanched._

"_Guys, we have company."_

Suddenly the room around them started vibrate slightly and a swarm of flying creatures burst out from the walls and ceiling, charging towards the group.

"Run!" Tenten yelled.

Immediately and with no questions asked everyone bolted from the room as fast as they could. Sakura had to reach down to grab a still distraught Ino by her arm and pull her along, however, the girl wouldn't seem to budge.

Kiba, who had been standing the closest to the two of them reached out to grab Ino's other arm and together the two of them managed to pull her to her feet and drag her along with the blonde girl stumbling to keep up.

Impatient, Kiba swung Ino over his shoulder and picked up his pace. The girl could not even bring herself to protest

Without the hindrance, Kiba breezed past Hinata who had stopped and turned, bringing a hand to her mouth and forming an 'O' with her fist.

Blowing through it, she created a gust of air that knocked back some of the buck toothed creatures by a fair distance but to her dismay, they quickly recovered and started charging at the group once again.

Spinning on her toes, Hinata started back down the corridor and swooped down the grand staircase

"C'mon Sasuke, burn them all!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke.

"Get everyone out first!" the raven-haired boy stopped and turned.

Making swift hand signs, Sasuke brought a hand up to his mouth and performed a katon jutsu, blowing a straight jet of fire at the flying beings and setting the whole room alight.

The angry flames licked the carpeted floors, giant stone columns and hideous creatures as Sasuke worked his way out through the tongues of fire and arid smoke.

Once he had made it out, he sucked in a deep breath of air and hacked out a few coughs, almost throwing up in the process. He gladly accepted the water that Naruto handed to him in a leather skin.

Since only Naruto, Sasuke and Kiba had followed the girls into the castle, Sai and Neiji were left outside, confused.

Both boys had dismounted their horses and were holding on to the reins. Gai and Lee were slouched over the necks of both horses, trying their best to stay awake and alert.

"What happened?" Sai asked. "Why is the building burning?"

Still trying to make sense of what had just happened, Naruto attempted to answer Sai, but only added to his confusion.

"Some weird flying things came out of the wall and attacked us in a ridiculously large group!"

Tenten quickly decided to step in so as to explain the situation further while Naruto calmed himself down.

"We were attacked by _Dens Fatales_, also called, Tooth Fairies. They are violent, dark creatures that reside in the deep recesses of the northern tundra's."

"Why are the here then?" Gaara asked, "In the middle of the Sahara…" he said as more of a statement than a question.

"Lucian must be behind this, he was probably after the queen."

"Where is she then?" Neiji questioned.

Tenten turned to Neiji, her expression somber. "She's gone, the queen and her guards were murdered by the tooth fairies."

"They were hiding in the walls and must have sensed us because they attacked in a swarm. Sasuke had to burn them all, hence the fire." Tenten added.

Tenten's stomach tightened as the words left her mouth, but she managed them anyway, having barely known Lucian's wife. However…

She looked over to where Kiba was standing with Ino still slung over his shoulder.

Slowly he moved to put her back down on her feet but the girl still couldn't seem to hold herself upright and would have collapsed to the ground if the spiky haired boy had not caught her again.

"Whoa!" Kiba grabbed Ino, steadying her.

"You okay to stand up?" Kiba asked after a few moments.

Mutely, Ino nodded.

Once it seemed like she would be able to hold herself up, Kiba released her and stepped back as Sakura came barreling forward. She threw her arms around Ino and the blonde immediately clung to her sister.

"She's gone Sakura." Ino sobbed.

"I know." Sakura stroked her sister's hair soothingly, trying to not only calm Ino but herself as well.

The rest of the group stood there silently except for Hinata who had moved to stand in front of the burning palace. The tall column of smoke rising into the sky was almost like a giant beacon attracting attention, so Hinata had started to mutter an incantation that was slowly dousing the flames.

"Lucian did this."

Sakura nodded. "And he'll pay for it."

Taking hold of Ino's shoulders, Sakura held the girl at an arms width away.

"But we have to be strong now, it's almost nightfall and we still need to get to the Valley."

"I know." Ino sucked in a deep breath and shook her head as if trying to rid it of the myriad of thoughts that haunted her.

Without knowing it, Ino felt herself hyperventilating as sobs wracked her body.

"Ino!" Sakura yelled, slapping the girl across the face. "We have to pull it together and get out of here now!"

Slightly stunned, Ino managed a nod. "I know." But her mind was still whirling, filled with thoughts and images of what her mother had probably endured.

Would she still be alive if they had gotten there in time? Did they just miss their window of opportunity to save her? Had her mother suffered?

Ino felt her stomach heave and doubled over, gagging, although nothing came out. Sakura tried to sooth her by placing a hand on her sisters' back and moving it in gentle circular motions.

"Everything alright?" Kiba asked. He stood before the two of them holding another waters skin.

"Yes." Sakura clenched and unclenched her fists as she answered and refused to look up at Kiba. Instead, she turned away to momentarily put some space between herself and the group.

'No tears.' She told herself, she was stronger than that, she had to be, for Ino. But after seeing her sister break down like that, she could barely hold herself together.

Behind her, she heard Kiba offer the water to Ino, who accepted but only managed a few sips.

"You should drink more." He said.

"It's fine." Was all she could manage as she handed the leather skin back to Kiba.

Hinata had finally quelled the fire and mounted her horse along with everyone else.

"We'd better get moving," she said. "That pillar of smoke probably gave us away to anyone who's out looking for us."

"Where do we go now?" Naruto asked.

"We follow that constellation southwest." Hinata used her finger to trace a constellation of stars in the deserts night sky that formed a figure of eight. The sun had disappeared beyond the horizon by now, throwing the Sahara into a pitch darkness save for the white cast of the full moon overhead and a spattering of stars.

"But the Kuroshi Forest lies southwest. That place is bare and reeks of death," Sasuke said.

His tone carried hints of repulsion, disgust and even desperation. Sasuke Uchiha it seemed, wanted to avoid the Kuroshi Forest at all costs. This made the shinobi's look at each other questioningly, wondering once more if they should trust the girls to lead them.

"That may be, but it's the fastest way to the valley, and we're running out of time." Hinata indicated to Gai and Lee.

"We should get going then." Sai spoke up.

The group set off once more, riding harder and faster this time. With the sun long set, the desert had begun to cool and a chilly breeze made everyone pull their cloaks tighter around themselves.

The Sahara was as unforgiving as always. In the day, the heat was scorching but at night, the temperature took a drastic drop.

They rode on for hours before they could finally make out a line of black on the edge of the Sahara. They were nearing the Kuroshi Forest.

However, the Vampir's keen ears had picked up the sound of hoofs, sounds that were not coming from the horses that Hinata, Tenten, and the rest of the group were riding. This could only mean that someone, or something, was tailing them.

Ino swooped down lower so as to notify Hinata.

"We're being followed.

Hinata nodded.

"We just have to hold up a bit longer."

By now, they had entered the Kuroshi Forest. Sasuke had been right; the forest really was a barren graveyard.

The forest barely had a designated trail, meaning that everyone had to struggle to keep going as the sound of foreign hooves closed in on them. It seemed as if nothing was alive in this forest, not a tree, nor a plant, or even an ant.

Even the shallow, rapid breathing of their exhausted horses and sounds of their heavy muscled gallops seemed to evaporate into the darkness around them, leaving only a lonely silence that crept under your skin.

As they weaved their way through dead leaves and rotted roots that protruded from the ground, the group had to also be wary of the overhanging branches that curled over the path and were like claws, especially in the dark, where they were barely visible and therefore hard to avoid.

The sounds of the foreign hooves were much closer now, coming from within the trees

"How much further?" Neiji yelled over his shoulder at Tenten.

"We're almost there!"

The silhouettes of the foreign riders were soon visible through the trees, making Akamaru growl.

"They're closing in!" he yelled once more.

"Just keep going!"

The unknown riders drew even closer to the group. They could now make out the tattered cloaks of the riders, which had been pulled closely over their heads, hiding their identities.

The shinobi were beginning to panic, and so were the girls. They had anticipated that they would be followed, but they did not think that the enemy would manage to get this close.

Suddenly, two tracks of flames lit up the sides of the path, creating a blockade between the group and the other riders. Seeing the wall of flames, the hooded riders filtered further back into the forest.

"What's going on?" Sai yelled this time.

"Don't worry, someone is just protecting us!" Ino answered.

Even though the walls of fire seemed to be keeping the other riders away, the group was fast approaching a wide but shallow river, which were where the flames ended, leaving them vulnerable.

Since she had been leading the group, Hinata's horse hit the water first with a loud 'splash', spraying water all around her. She continued to egg the horse on, followed by Sasuke, Sai, Kiba, Gaara, Naruto, Neiji and Tenten.

"They're coming back again, hurry!" Ino warned everyone.

With that, she gave her wings one last beat and crossed the opposite bank of the river together with Hinata. However, instead of following the girls, Sasuke pulled on the reins of his horse. The others behind him stopped short as well.

Once Ino and Hinata had crossed the riverbank, they had vanished, surprising Sasuke and the rest of the shinobi.

Sakura dropped down next to Sasuke. "Just ride through, you'll be fine," she said to him.

The boy stared at her for a moment. It occurred to him that they could have all been walking straight into a trap, but the look in Sakura's jade eyes made him want to believe her.

Finally, he nodded and pushed on, vanishing as well once he'd crossed the bank. Kiba and Gaara crossed the bank next, with Sakura following them.

As Naruto neared the edge of the river, one of the stray riders cut into his path. Scared and surprised, his horse rose up on its hind legs, throwing him backwards and into the freezing waters before running off.

Naruto began scrambling backwards as the cloaked horseman trotted toward him.

"Naruto!" Neiji called out.

"Keep going Neiji!" The boy shouted back. As much as Neiji wanted to help, he knew that getting Gai to safety was the priority, so he continued on.

Suddenly, a large, white and grey dog tackled the horseman, knocking him clean off his horse. Another golden - bronze dog attacked the rider that had been going after Tenten. Naruto quickly got to his feet and found a hand extended to him.

Looking up, he saw a white horse but could not make sense of whom the rider was, since the rider had the hood of his or her velvet black riding cloak pulled on.

"Get on." The voice was female.

Taking hold of her hand, Naruto swung himself onto the horse.

As the girl made her way back to the opposite back, Naruto noticed one more person standing in the middle of the river. She too rode a white horse but had on a navy blue velvet cloak instead.

Since her hood had been pushed back, Naruto managed to catch a glimpse of her face but all of a sudden, his surroundings had changed. Naruto definitely was not in the eerie, dead jungle anymore. The first thing that hit him was the strong but calming smell of lavender.

Looking around, he realized why.

He was right smack in the middle of a lavender meadow. Steep waterfalls surrounded almost the entire meadow with the gushing waters cutting through the peaceful silence of the night like a tranquil lullaby of nature, and filling out the stream that ran through the stalks of lavender.

The full moon shone down as the only source of light, making the place look almost dreamlike. Naruto was so caught up in admiring his surroundings that it took him awhile to realize that the other person on the horse was addressing him.

"…alright?"

"Sorry, what?" Naruto finally came back down to earth.

"I asked if you were okay." The girl had to crane her neck to look at Naruto but even then her hood still hid most of her face, revealing only a pair of full but slightly chapped lips and the tip of her nose.

"Uh…oh yes, I'm not injured." Naruto replied before taking one more look around.

"Where is everyone else?" he wondered.

"They've probably gone ahead. We'll meet up with them as soon as one more person arrives."

Naruto nodded.

Obviously the hooded girl was referring to the person in blue whom he had seen earlier. As if on cue, said girl appeared, riding into the meadow. Along with her were the two dogs that he had seen attack the riders at the river.

However, upon closer inspection, he came to realize that they were not dogs at all. What he thought had been a grey and white dog was actually a creature that much resembled a white tiger except for the fact that it had an overbite where a row of extremely sharp looking teeth protruded.

The second creature differed from the first. It looked like a leopard but its ears were unusually long, resembling two black tubes, which grew up over its head slightly and elongated towards its tail.

"Everything alright?" the one in black asked.

"The girl in blue nodded. "All taken care of."

The leopard – like creature came up and nudged the leg of the girl seated in front of Naruto. Releasing her grip on the reins, the girl reached down slightly and stroked the top of the large creatures head.

"Lets get going." The one in blue spoke.

After reminding Naruto to hold on, the girls kicked the horses into motion, setting off for the waterfall up ahead with the animals following close by.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked. He had to raise his voice slightly now in order to compete with the roar of the waterfall.

"You'll see."

Carefully, so as not to get drenched, they circled around the falls and entered the cave – like passage behind it. Eternity vines lined the passage walls, setting the cave aglow. When they finally came to the end of the stone cave, Naruto gulped.

The cave opened up to a steep drop, to the right was a flight of stone steps leading up while a similar flight to the left led downward. Even then, Naruto could not help but stare in awe at the canyon before him.

Quaint, yet beautiful granite houses were set into the rock face, some of which sported large balcony's intricately decorated with multiple garlands of flowers. Lights shone through some houses although the windows of others were in darkness, indicating that whoever lived there were either out or asleep for the night.

Miniature waterfalls sprouted from the sides of the canyon and into the crystalline river that cut through it.

"Welcome to Angel Falls."

_**Authors note: Please do enjoy this chapter as I hope you have the previous ones. I have set a goal for myself to try and update this story on a weekly basis so please do give me your support as it means a lot and knowing that there are readers out there looking forward to my story helps to motivate my lazy ass. **_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. **_

_**A/N: Hey readers! I'm sorry that this post was later than I had said it would be, or that I had even planned. I think factiction was having a problem with the uploading of documents so I could not get this chapter up even though I wanted to. That aside, its finally up, so please enjoy the chapter!**_

"_Welcome to Angel Falls." _

The girl in black said before steering the horse to the right and up the stairway.

"It's beautiful." Naruto commented.

Finally, Naruto saw his friends come into view as they neared a wide balcony-like platform. It was lined with creepers as well as rosebushes, and was attached to a columned corridor. Candelabra's sat on the columns, lighting the surrounding area with a soft, yellow glow, making it easier to see.

The shinobi were standing around, talking amongst themselves as they waited for Naruto to arrive.

"And here I thought you'd gone and died baka." Sasuke said to Naruto as the boy dismounted the horse.

"Well sorry to disappoint teme."

"Do the two of you _ever _stop fighting?" Ino asked.

"Unlikely, it's like a daily ritual for them." Neiji answered.

"Naruto–san, are you alright?" Hinata walked up to him but kept her head bowed slightly.

The two girls seated on the horses turned to look at each other.

"I'm fine, thank you Hinata–chan." Naruto smiled and the petite girl immediately backed off, attempting to hide her blush.

"Where are Lee and Gai?"

"They were taken into care by some medics." Gaara replied.

"That's good." Naruto was relieved to know that his friends would make it somehow.

"Alaskariana, Amandromeda, your highnesses!"

A young boy came running out from the corridor.

"You should not have run off like that, her ladyship is furious." He panted.

The girl in blue laughed out loud, revealing sharp canines. A Vampir, the shinobi noted. She had fair skin with cheeks that were specked with freckles, as well as black eyes and hair that fell straight down to her shoulders in a lop-sided bob.

"Well somebody had to help them." She argued, as she hopped off her horse and unbuttoned her cloak, draping it over the saddle.

Underneath the bright blue cloak she wore a pair of gauzy navy blue harem pants and the matching silk tank.

"Please Amandromeda, you should still listen to her ladyships wishes."

The girl in blue, who was apparently named Amandromeda, patted the shorter boy on his head.

"You really are adorable Reiruki."

"But speaking of not listening."

This time it was the girl in black – who was most likely Alaskariana – that spoke, as she slowly pulled her hood back to reveal light brown eyes and dark brown hair that fell to the middle of her back in waves. A thin gold band encircled her forehead and the crown of her head.

"Sakura and Ino…" Her tone was neutral and she did not yell or scream, but the two Vampirs still cringed slightly.

Alaskariana dismounted her horse and removed her cloak to drape it over the saddle, just like Amandromeda had done earlier. Taking hold of the reins of both horses, Reiruki led them away to the stables.

Underneath her cloak she'd donned a black, long sleeved velvet dress that had a fitted bodice but flowed from her waist to the middle of her thighs. Two gold rings sat on the third and fourth fingers of her left hand.

Alaskariana and Amandromeda moved to stand beside Hinata and Tenten.

"What were you girls thinking, going after Lucian yourself?"

"We know we shouldn't have, but we didn't want to risk him getting away." Sakura said defensively.

"We sent word." Ino grinned gingerly.

"And what if the bird had been intercepted or shot down?" Amandromeda added.

"You could have been killed out there." Alaskariana finished.

"She's right," Tenten said. "We were lucky that Hinata's powers even worked on the soldiers."

"They did?" Amandromeda gasped.

"Yes." Hinata answered. "Although we still don't understand why."

"But…" Sakura turned to look at Ino. "We found our mother murdered in the Vampir palace."

Amandromeda's hands flew to her mouth in shock. Alaskariana just took a step closer toward the girls, her expression somber.

"I'm so sorry. But what about the body?"

"There was none, he used Tooth Fairy's. Everyone who stayed at the palace to protect her is gone too."

"Bastard!" Alaskariana's swore.

Hinata, always opposed to such language, cleared her throat.

"We'll kill him, I don't care how." Ino spat.

"Ino…"

The blonde shook her head making her high ponytail sway from side to side.

"I know you always say that revenge is never the answer, but sometimes its just necessary for some form of closure."

Alaskariana continued to eye Ino, but her expression remained soft. She looked like she was about to say something, but her attention momentarily switched to the shinobi surrounding them and when it returned all she said was "Loqui de ob ettom pozzhe." _We'll talk about this later._

The blonde merely dropped her gaze.

Alaskariana wanted to give Ino some form of comfort, to tell the girl that her mother was at peace, but she had idea of what Ino's mother might have gone through before she died, and she could not bring herself to say those words and mean them. "Now is not the time to dwell," She said instead. "I'm sorry to say that but you know it's true. We're just glad that you're safe." Alaskariana smiled softly, revealing the signature Vampir teeth.

The shinobi found this slightly odd though. Alaskariana was not the typical size of a Vampir. She was slim and petite at 5ft. 3, although she was certainly filled in like a Vampir. In opposition, Amandromeda wore the height of a Vampir at 5ft. 10, though she was more lanky than curvy like Sakura or Ino.

"So am I." Another voice filtered in.

Everyone turned to see a woman drift onto the balcony. Her porcelain skin seemed to hold an ageless quality, somehow youthful yet ancient all at once. The only sign that she was an elder were the bands of silver that streaked through her dark brown hair, which was pulled up into a neat chignon. She was dressed in an intricately beaded white sari-like outfit. Her glassy brown eyes observed the shinobi as if she could see into their deepest selves.

The girls all bent their knees and dropped their heads in a small curtsey.

"I do understand that your intentions were good, although I was not too thrilled to hear of your spontaneous adventure." She spoke.

"Sorry." Sakura and Ino apologized.

"No matter, I can't say I blame you since it seems that you are learning from your cousins as I recall telling two young ladies to stay put tonight."

"We're sixty years old, don't patronize us." Alaskariana argued.

"Miniscule compared to the years I have on me. Your quick mouth will be the death of you one day my dear."

"Key word being 'one day'. Besides, I believe we're all entitled to some rebelliousness now and then."

All the girls laughed but the woman scoffed daintily.

"It is hardly now and then with you."

The woman turned to greet the shinobi with a dip of her head.

'_Bow._' Tenten mouthed and the boys quickly reciprocated the gesture, although Sasuke had to manually shove Naruto's head down.

"Welcome, you must be the shinobi from the Leaf."

"Actually, I am the Kazekage of Suna." Gaara spoke up.

"Apologies, I welcome you as well."

"I am Lady Jaal, one of the first fallen Angels and Lady of the Olympic Valley. I assume everyone here is acquainted?"

Gaara's eyes drifted to Alaskariana and Amandromeda, something that Lady Jaal noticed.

"Or perhaps not. What are your names?"

One by one the boys introduced themselves before Lady Jaal continued.

"May I introduce Amandromeda Noskova?" She indicated to Amandromeda

"You can call me Manda." She girl chimed in.

"And my granddaughter, Alaskariana Dragomirov."

"Alaska, please."

"Granddaughter?!" Naruto gaped.

"Why are you so surprised?' Alaska could not help but laugh.

"Well you seemed to have the sharper Vampir canines, so we just assumed." Sai answered for the easily excited blonde.

"That's because I'm also part Vampir, and so is Manda. My father and Manda's father were all a part of the Vampir royal family. That is how we are related to Ino and Sakura as well, our fathers were all brothers."

"Mummy!" A high little voice suddenly yelled.

All eyes turned to see Reiruki return, holding on to the hand of a little blonde girl. She was using her other hand to shield her eyes.

"Sorry," Reiruki said. "She insisted on seeing you."

He led the girl all the way up to Sakura.

"Sweetie," Sakura knelt down. "Why are you covering your eyes?"

"My sharingan activated today mummy! Look!" she removed her hand from her eyes and grinned.

Sure enough, a pair of red orbs with a black symbol in the center stared back at Sakura.

"That's amazing Aya!"

Sakura picked the girl up, but she could not help but turn her gaze to the only other person who she knew had the Uchiha bloodline limit. Sure enough, Sasuke's onyx eyes were narrowed in suspicion, while the rest of the shinobi stood stunned.

"Why does she have the Sharingan?" he ground out.

"Uh…well." Sakura struggled to find the right words to explain.

"Is she really your daughter?" Neiji questioned as well.

"Actually no." Sakura turned to face Sasuke. "But she is your niece."

"_What?_" The ice in his tone made Sakura cringe. Protectively, Ino moved closer to her sister.

"Her, her father…is Uchiha Itachi."

Sasuke found himself at a loss of words.

So his brother had actually sired a daughter and failed to ever tell him about it. Although in Itachi's defense, they never actually had a proper conversation once Itachi had left Konoha. They only ever fought. They had missed so much of each other's lives, something they would never be able to make up.

And now in some twisted way, he'd killed the father of his own niece. Of course he'd finally found out why Itachi had done all that he had, but now as he looked at the little girl in Sakura's arms, Sasuke could not help but develop a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He wondered how Itachi's daughter had ended up in Sakura's care since she had stated that she wasn't the girl's biological mother.

"Who is her mother then?" he asked.

"She lived in a village somewhere in Rock, but she passed on during childbirth."

"So how did her daughter end up with you?"

"For a brief period, the Akastuki had been working with the Vampirs to take down the werewolves. Lucian was interested in their lands, and the Akastuki were after the properties of Werewolf blood. Once, he'd returned with some information that Lucian wanted, but he was badly injured."

"I was the one who tended to his injuries and that's how we were acquainted."

"When Aya's mother passed, he brought her to me, claiming that he could not raise a child and I was the only person he could think of."

A short moment of awkward silence passed over the group, during which Lady Jaal let out a very delicate cough.

"It has been a long day and I'm sure everyone is exhausted and there are many puzzles to be solved and questions to be answered." Lady Jaal started.

"Yes," Sasuke hissed, but Lady Jaal continued on as if he had not spoken.

"So we shall continue this tomorrow, after a good nights sleep."

"Come with me." She motioned to the boys. " I will show you to your room."

"Goodnight my dears, Reiruki." She wished the group and kissed Alaska on the cheek before leading the shinobi away.

The girls and the young boy also left to retire for the night. 'A long day' did not even come close.

-000-

Gaara woke up with a start for the third time that night. He was breathing heavily and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. Nightmares, images of his past, bloodthirsty self still terrorized him in his sleep.

Sitting up, he pushed the soft comforter back and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He shared a cozy room with the rest of the boys who were peacefully asleep on their own beds, although Naruto tended to snore and snort very loudly now and then.

After insisting that the boys took a bath in one of the hot springs, Lady Jaal had provided them with a few sets of identical clothes for them to change into that consisted of an off-white linen shirt and white, silky drawstring pants. Apparently the angels were very big on whites.

As he stared out through his window at the breathtaking canyon and the infinite stars that littered the dark sky, Gaara was reminded of his insomniac days when he would just sit on rooftops and stare at the moon. He still had bouts of insomnia – old habits and all – but at least he'd still manage to get some semblance of sleep on some nights.

But it looked like this was not going to be one of those nights.

He crept out of the room quietly so as not to wake anyone. Not wanting to get lost, Gaara took the only route he knew, which led him back to the large balcony that they had been on earlier. To his surprise though, he was not the only one awake.

The girl he remembered as Alaska stood near the edge of the balcony, humming to the little girl in her arms, Aya, Sasuke's niece.

He was still trying to wrap his head around that fact, and so was everyone else. Then again, he was going to be an uncle soon, but would Temari's child even want to be around him? Would the little infant cower from him like so many others did his whole life?

Alaska must have sensed his presence since she turned to face him. Even in a simple, silver ankle – length dress, Gaara could not help but think that she did indeed look quite beautiful, just as she had when she'd pulled off her hood earlier that night. Although it did seem like most Vampirs and Angels were somehow genetically blessed.

It took her awhile to realize who he was but when she did, she gave him the tiniest of smiles, so much so that he almost couldn't tell if she was smiling or not.

"Gaara, right?"

Gaara nodded.

"Can't sleep?"

"You could say that."

Alaska's eyes scanned him for a moment, almost as if she were studying him. Her lips parted slightly, like she was about to say something, but she seemed to think otherwise and turned away, focusing instead on rocking Aya.

"And yourself?" Gaara asked.

"Aya woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I offered to tend to her since Sakura was still pretty exhausted."

"I see." Gaara walked to the edge of the balcony and leaned against the stone railing, feeling strangely calm standing out in the cool night.

Alaska watched him as he moved, observing him. Finally, she decided to ask what she had intended to earlier.

"Were you having nightmares?"

Gaara turned his head to look at her, surprise evident on his features.

"Uh…yes, but how did you know?"

"By reading your dreamlight."

Gaara angled his body to face her fully now, curious as to what she was talking about.

"Dreamlight?"

"Yeah, its like an aura surrounding a person that's made up if different colours."

"You can tell a lot about a person through dreamlight – like if they've had a nightmare – and everyone's dreamlight is unique to them." Alaska explained.

"And you can see this…dreamlight?"

The girl nodded. "Yup, anyone with magical abilities can read dreamlight. Although its only visible in the Olympic Valley."

"Why is that?"

"Well to put it simply, its because this valley was created through the purest magic, and it radiates over everything here, even people. That's what makes dreamlight visible."

Gaara nodded his understanding. The extensive amount of how much they had yet to learn about the world was beginning to dawn on him. Another lapse of silence passed over them as Gaara turned back to the scenery, and his thoughts.

He heard footsteps slowly fade, indicating that Alaska had walked off. However, it was not long before he heard the sound of someone returning.

"Gaara." Alaska called out. This time Aya was absent from her arms.

"If you wanted, I might actually be able to quell your nightmares by altering your dreamlight." She said to him. "But it would only be temporary."

Gaara did not have to mull over her offer for very long. He would openly accept any relief from the images that plagued his mind at night, no matter how short.

He nodded. "Okay."

"C'mon then, you'll probably fall asleep when I'm done and I doubt you want to collapse on the floor in a heap."

Alaska led him to a marble bench that sat along the corridor. Embroided cushions had been neatly placed on it and Gaara positioned one beneath his head as he lay down.

"Close your eyes." Alaska said as she sat herself down on the edge of the bench near his head and lightly placed her fingers on his temples.

As Alaska fully opened her senses to Gaara's dreamlight, she was hit with an unexpected myriad of emotions. This always tended to be a problem when coming into direct contact with another person's dreamlight. You never actually saw any images but instead you would be bombarded with the emotional reality of their dreams or thoughts.

Gaara's chest rose and fell steadily, indicating that he was beginning to slip into sleep. Carefully, Alaska dug deeper into his dreamlight until she felt the faint frission of dark, nightmare energy whisper across her senses. A shiver ran up her spine at the dark aura that came in relentless waves and she wondered what kind of nightmares he endured.

It took her awhile but eventually Alaska managed to ease the dark dreamlight of his nightmares into the patterns associated with normal dreaming. Gaara was fast asleep by the time Alaska pulled her hands back, noting that it would probably be the best sleep that he'd had in years.

She was about to stand up and leave when the scar on Gaara's head caught her attention. It made her wonder what such a symbol would mean to him, and why he had inked it onto his forehead.

She wanted to reach out and brush his hair away so that she could see it clearly. However, he was still a stranger, so she stood up and walked back off to her room where the other girls also slept.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

Gaara woke the next morning to the warmth of the sun on his face. He was definitely sore from sleeping on a rock bench, although as a shinobi, he'd grown accustomed to sleeping on hard grounds. Nevertheless, he felt extremely refreshed and rested. His sleep had been deep and undisturbed, and it was all thanks to Alaska.

Gaara sat up and gave his neck a few good cracks before heading back to his room. He was about to open the door when it swung back to reveal Kiba.

"Oh, Gaara, I was just about to go look for you." He said.

"Where were you?"

"I went for a walk and fell asleep on one of the benches."

He didn't think it was necessary to mention the nightmares, or the dreamlight, or Alaska.

As he moved past Kiba into the room, he noticed Naruto, spread eagle on his bed, still out like a light, and could not help but shake his head at the funny sight. Everyone else besides the blonde oaf was already up.

Neiji sat on his already made bed in quiet meditation while Sai sat by the window, sketching the scenery. Sasuke lay on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling, seemingly oblivious to the world, even though he would probably still be able to catch a kunai without blinking if someone were to suddenly throw one at him.

"Ah, I see you are all awake."

All eyes turned to se a man standing in the open doorway.

"Lady Jaal has requested your presence. If you would follow me please." He motioned to them.

"Yeah, sure." Kiba replied before moving over to Naruto's cot.

"Hey, wake up!" he yelled, and Akamaru barked.

"Mmm…five more minutes." Naruto murmured like a small child.

Blatantly, Sasuke got up and hit him with his pillow, hard.

-000-

"So that man is my unka?" Aya asked, referring to Sasuke. She still had some problems with pronunciation.

Sakura nodded. She had just finished explaining the connection between Sasuke and Itachi. From the very moment Itachi had handed Aya to her, she had made a promise to herself and the child that she would never lie to Aya about who she really was.

And Sakura had kept that promise, which meant that Aya even knew how her father had died. The entire story behind it however, would have to wait, since it was a little too complicated to explain to a five year old.

A knock sounded at the door and Ino yelled for whomever it was to come in. The same man who had called on the boys stood there with the group of shinobi trailing behind him.

Suddenly, Aya stood up off the bed and threw the ceramic toy cube she had been holding directly at Sasuke. It hit him on his shin and rolled off into the crackling fireplace in the corner. Feeling the light thump on his leg, Sasuke looked down at the little girl standing there with her hands on her hips.

"You killed my fada."

The raven-haired boy said nothing, but only stared at her curiously. This seemed to make the girl lose her boldness and she ran back to cling to Sakura.

"She knows?"

"Yes, everything except as to why he died."

"Why would you tell her?" He practically growled

"Because I don't intend to keep her away from her past." Sakura gritted her teeth and replied, trying to keep her own temper at bay.

Sasuke felt his temper rise and was about to question her judgment when Naruto brusquely pushed past him and made a beeline for the fireplace. With almost everyone's attention fixed on Sasuke and Sakura, no one seemed to notice the fact that Alaska had her hand in the fireplace and was feeling around inside the flames.

Grabbing the elbow that stuck out of the fireplace, Naruto pulled the girl back and she landed roughly on her buttocks.

"What are you doing?" Alaska yelled and yanked her arm out of his grip.

"What am _I _doing, what do you think _you _aredoing with your head in the fireplace?"

"My question is why she isn't burnt?" Neiji noted.

This fact seemed to also suddenly dawn on Naruto as he took in her arms and head, completely void of any burns.

Alaska shifted her gaze between the two boys before letting out an exasperated sigh, her shoulder visibly dropping.

"I'm immune to fire."

"What?" Naruto did a small double – take.

"You heard me." Alaska said, before reaching back into the fire, once again taking special care not to singe her dress.

Finally, Alaska re-emerged with Aya's toy in hand. The little girl walked over and reached for it, but Alaska held it out of her reach and handed it to Manda who had coated both her hands in ice.

"Not until its cooled down sweety." Manda said to her.

"B-but how can that be possible?"

Alaska pushed herself up off the floor and stared at Naruto before looking over at the group of shinobi scrutinizing her. Her eyes drifted to the open window.

"Uh, well - "

"Pardon me everyone, but Lady Jaal is already in the meadow and she does not like to be kept waiting." The man who had escorted the group of boys spoke up.

"Perfect timing." Alaska muttered to herself.

"Let's go then." Tenten said as she pulled her waist length hair up into her signature buns. She'd never felt comfortable with her hair down, and it tended to get in the way since her brown locks fell to her waist.

Just like the boys, the girls were garbed similarly in silver dresses.

As they left the room and started toward the lavender meadow that they had first stepped into the previous night, Sasuke could not help but stare at the little girl still clinging to Sakura's hand.

Unabashedly, she stared back and stuck her tongue out at him.

Sasuke smirked at her cheekiness, he could not help it. Somehow, he could see Sakura acting the exact same way when she was a little girl.

"How do I know that she really isn't yours?" he found himself asking.

Sakura scoffed at him.

"Do I look like I'm blonde? And we all know that Itachi has black hair…"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Birth abnormality? You hair could be recessive…"

"And she does refer to you as her mother."

"You'd refer to her as your mother too if she had raised you since you were a little tyke in diapers." Tenten interjected.

"Your unusually opinionated this morning." The Uchiha deadpanned.

"No its pretty usual for her," Alaska said.

"Why don't believe me?" Sakura asked him.

"Because your annoying." His usual smirk returned.

"What? What kind of logic is that? And how am I annoying? I could say the same thing about you."

"You keep whining." He stated.

"I am not whining!"

"You're whining right now."

"Because _you're _annoying _me_!"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Its okay Sakura-san, I don't think your annoying." Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"Well thank you." The girl said to him before sticking her tongue out at Sasuke as an 'in your face' gesture.

The boy had to smother a laugh.

-000-

The group found Lady Jaal seated by the stream in the meadow on a patch of flat, grassy ground. It was but one of the rare areas free from the tall, purple and green stalks. The sun shone warmly, in contrast to the cool breeze that blew through the meadow, sending up heavy wafts of lavender.

Laid out beside her was an assortment of fruits, cheese and biscuits. A man sat in a wheelchair next to her, with one of his hands covering the one she already had on his knee as they spoke in hushed tones.

He was obviously in his sixty's with white hair and a hard-planed face that showed a difficult life. Despite this, laugh lines creased his mouth and etched outwards from his hazel eyes as he spoke to Lady Jaal.

Both of them cut their conversation short when they heard the group arrive.

"Ah, good morning everyone! I trust you are all well rested."

The shinobi all nodded.

"Good, good. Well, breakfast is served." She indicated to the food. "And Eichi, thank you for escorting everyone down."

The boy bowed before taking his leave.

Tenten, Sakura and Ino immediately dropped to the groud and dived for the food, hungry from their long journey the day before. Hinata and Alaska sat themselves close to Lady Jaal and plucked a bunch of grapes each to munch on slowly, while Manda grabbed an apple and dipped her feet into the sunshine sparkled stream.

Alaska looked up at the boys as she popped a green grape into her mouth.

"You can sit down you know, the ground isn't going to swallow you."

All the girls laughed whilst the shinobi just stared sheepishly.

"Manners, my dear." Lady Jaal chastised her granddaughter.

"In abundance." Alaska grinned at her.

"She's right though." Lady Jaal continued. "Please do sit, you must be starving."

They were, very, and immediately grabbed the first piece of food in sight. Neiji had to watch Naruto closely so as to make sure that the blonde maintained some form of civilized dining.

"I'd like to introduce my husband, Takeshi." Lady Jaal placed her hand back onto the man's knee.

"It's nice to meet you all." He had a deep, resounding voice that sounded like it could have once commanded armies.

"Are you human?" Sai suddenly asked.

Neiji choked.

Was he the only person who seemed to have some semblance of proper etiquette?

That was not entirely true, as Gaara too seemed uncomfortable to have such a comment hang in the air, although Neiji had a feeling that the same question was on everyone's mind.

While Lady Jaal looked to be about the same age as Takeshi, she walked with the ease of a youth and moved with the elegance of a dancer. Takeshi on the other hand obviously had problems with walking – hence the wheelchair – and did not possess that regal, ethereal quality that seemed evident amongst the Angels. Instead, he was simple and plain.

Both he and Lady Jaal looked at each other and laughed.

"Yes, I am actually."

"And the servants, are they humans as well?"

"The Keepers." Lady Jaal added graciously. "And yes, they are."

"How does that work exactly?" Sasuke asked. "If this place impossible to find, how did humans come to live here?"

"You'd be surprised to find that many centuries ago, humans and supernatural beings, like the Angels, Vampirs and so on, co–existed. It may not necessarily have been harmonious in some areas, but nevertheless, the humans of that era knew everything there was to know about such beings."

"Therefore it was only a matter of time before the different beings started intermingling, humans, Angels and so on. The Keepers are descendants of humans who worked closely with the Angels many ages ago, while some are even children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

"I do not mean to be blunt, but it seems that you have been around for a long time," Gaara said.

"I have been indeed."

"So then you'll be able to tell us all we need to know about the relic in the box and it's link to the stories in the children's book?"

"I'm afraid I won't be able to help with that." Lady Jaal replied.

"Both that book and relic were present far, far beyond my time here. I suspect the reason that book lasted as long as it did was probably because it was spelled. A spell, which I suspect, wore off a few centuries ago, explaining the faded ink and mildewed pages."

"The Angels only came to Earth during the first Great War. Times were dire and the humans were in need of guardians."

"Guardian Angels." Naruto suddenly said.

"Yes, that is where the term comes from. When the war ended, most of the Angels returned, but some," she smiled up at Takeshi "chose to stay for certain reasons."

"We built Angel falls as a sanctuary, a little slice of home and a safe place, for anyone who knew how to find it."

"But then that means…" Naruto looked to Takeshi. "How old are you?"

"Five hundred and sixty, give or take a few years." The man chuckled.

"How is that possible?"

The shinobi were all taken aback. To hear of the Vampirs and Angels' true age was a shock, yes, but it was also somewhat expected. Hearing of a human that had lived for such a long time was completely unheard of.

"Time stops for any mortal being residing in this valley. When you live here, you're living outside of time."

"And if you were to leave?" Neiji questioned.

"You'd begin aging once more as per normal."

"That's amazing." Kiba added.

"Yes, but you can see the appeal for humans." Lady Jaal began speaking once more. "Hence the reason this place is so hard to locate. It is also why I must ask for your discretion on the matter. No one need know unless absolutely necessary."

"This realm has stood for centuries, and I don't intend to let it fall anytime soon."

It was the first time the shinobi had heard Lady Jaal address them in such an icy, sharp tone, that all they could do for the moment was nod their understanding.

"Milady," Ino started. "I have been wondering though, could there have been another book like the one we found? It could have been how Lucian found out about the relic."

Lady Jaal nodded. "It's possible."

Alaska then added, "I've also been wondering if that's the case however, if there really are more copies of this book, were they spelled too? I mean, these stories have been passed down for children so there definitely should be more manuscripts out there, but what makes this one so special? Why preserve it with such a strong spell unless there is a reason behind it. Its not worth the effort to spell a book on a mere whim."

"Plus, that book mentions so many different artifacts, but why did Lucian only have the robe with him - or what we assume to be the robe in any case. Something just doesn't seem to click here."

"She has a point." Hinata said as she reached for the old, leather book by Lady Jaal's feet. "Also, there's an inscription here." The dark – haired girl pointed to a small clutter of symbols etched into the books spine.

"These symbols still look like they were inscribed here only yesterday. Someone took specific care in making sure this would still be seen."

"So what you're saying," Sasuke began, "Is that the person who wrote this book _wanted _it to be found?"

Alaska and Hinata both nodded.

"Why?"

"That's what we have to figure out." Alaska replied.

"What _are _those symbols anyway?" Kiba questioned, and leaned in slightly to get a closer look.

"It doesn't seem like any language I've seen before."

Manda motioned for Hinata to pass her the book. Upon receiving it, she traced her finger across the writing and turned the book over in a few different angles.

"That's because it's a dead language, my guess is Arcaic." She finally said before handing the book over to Takeshi and Lady Jaal.

"You are quite correct, and it is a dead language. Even when I was a boy, this language was not spoken or written by anyone." Takeshi told the group. "Usually we only found it carved into the sides of old, run – down temples.

"What does this mean for us then? What should we do now?" Gaara asked.

"Research." Lady Jaal answered. "And train, to prepare yourselves for what is out there and what is to come." She looked to Tenten as she said this and the brunette gave a stiff, almost unnoticeable nod.

Next, the older Angel turned to Alaska and handed the book over to her.

"Go back to the lake house."

"This puzzle is going to be a hard one to solve and it's going to require some extensive digging. Let's just hope Lucian doesn't figure out whatever the missing piece is. There is a reason Hinata's magic still worked on his soldiers."

"Understood." Alaska replied.

"Good." Lady Jaal clasped her hands together.

"Well then, once everyone finishes up with breakfast I suggest you should all return to your room to change and pack."

"Where are we going?" Kiba asked.

"Our home." Tenten answered.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

"_Where are we going?" Kiba asked._

"_Our home." Tenten answered._

An hour later, after a filling breakfast and a quick change, the shinobi made their way back to the meadow along with Lady Jaal. The same boy from the night before, Reiruki, was waiting for them with their horses prepared.

Aya was with him as well, giggling to herself as she fed an apple to a brilliant, white mare.

"Where is everyone else?" Naruto asked, referring to the girls.

"They will be joining us in a moment." Lady Jaal said as she pointed to a high ridge above the waterfall, where six figures stood.

All of a sudden, all the six figures broke into a run and threw themselves off the ridge, plummeting downwards along with the rushing water of the falls. As they neared the bottom, they spread their wings one by one, gliding low towards the group.

"Pardon them, they do that every time." Lady Jaal added with a shake of her head.

Alaska and Tenten were the first the reach the group, wings beating slowly and steadily as they slowed down and hovered before landing lightly on their bare feet. Alaska was clad in a black, backless, fitted one-piece halter suit, which cut off into a pair of shorts. Her wings were twice her size, and while majority of the feathers were white, some were flecked with black, silver and gold, giving them an almost marble-like look.

Gaara couldn't help but be reminded of the smooth, solid surface of the Belyi Zemli stone.

Manda was dressed similarly to Alaska, the only differences being that the colour of her outfit was a cerulean blue and laced up at her lower back. Her wings too stood at twice her size and were the same pure white as Hinata's.

Tenten and Hinata, with Sakuro and Ino close behind, followed the two girls.

"That will never get old!" Manda exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and collapsing backwards onto the ground as she came down from the adrenaline high.

Kiba and Naruto laughed.

"Where do we go from here?" Naruto asked.

Hinata started to answer, but the moment Naruto turned to face her, she dropped her head and murmured the rest of her sentence.

"What did you say Hinata?" Naruto stooped down and tilted his head slightly to get a better look at her, but the girl merely shook her head and blurted out a "nothing".

"She said that we just have to travel over those hills at the edge of the meadow, and then follow the river up the valley beyond the hills." Sakura clarified.

"It's about an hours ride."

"I see." Naruto nodded and smiled before turning to Lady Jaal and offering his hand up for her to shake.

"Thank you for all your help, saving our friends and even our village."

Lady Jaal clasped his hand in both of her own.

"Of course, guardian angels remember." She looked round at everyone standing there and smiled. "No matter what we are or where we come from, everyone is always somebody else's guardian angel."

Releasing his hand, she turned to the girls.

"Do keep me updated, and stay safe." She dipped her head slightly and the girls bowed in response, so did the boys.

Finally, the boys mounted their horses with Reiruki having to hold Naruto's horse steady once again so that he could clamber on. After which, the young boy hoisted himself onto the white mare that Aya had been feeding before helping her up to sit behind him on the saddle. Once everyone was ready, the group set off in the direction that Sakura had pointed out.

The meadow stretched on, until finally, they came to the edge of the lavender field. Flat green grass stretched on before them and over the range of hills that sat at the edge of the meadow.

They continued on, following the path over the hills and down into the valley. A wide, but shallow river ran through it while steeper hills rose up on either side of them. The girls flew above them, not too low so as to create gusts with their wing beats, but not too high either so that the shinobi could keep them in sight and follow them easily.

As noon began to near, the group approached a great lake that was as wide as it was long. From afar, it looked like a deep shade of blue, but as they closed in on the waters edge, it was clear enough for the bottom of the lake to be seen. Hills continued to rise around the lake, giving way to mountains.

On the far side of the lake, a villa with two adjacent towers rose up at the base of one of the mountains, perched right at the waters edge. There was no passage across the lake, save for a longboat anchored down to the shoreline by pegs.

Tenten came to land beside the shinobi.

"Dismount your horses and take off the saddle and reins, they'll be fine feeding and resting out here."

"Load everything in the boat and you can row over."

The shinobi, together with Reiruki did as Tenten said and let the horses roam free in the grass before climbing into the boat. There were four oars in all, two on either side. Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke and Neiji grabbed an oar each and rowed whilst Reiruki acted as the coxswain.

He steered them towards a small dock that was connected to a flight of stone steps, which led up to a brilliantly white marble-floored veranda. Granite columns encircled with vines rose up from the floor to the ceiling, lining the pathway, and a stone railing was carved out at the edge of the veranda.

There was no door, instead, the veranda led into a great hall that followed through to another room, which was evidently the dining room. Its far wall was lined with only windows that looked out into the mountains behind.

Two grand staircases curved up at the sides of the hall, leading to the second floor. A grand piano was tucked into a cozy corner of the hall, which also led out to the right and left of the villa.

"C'mon Reiruki, let's go play!" Aya suddenly exclaimed, grabbing the boy's hand and dragging him up one of the staircases.

"I cannot wait until those two are teenagers." Ino laughed.

Sakura just stared at her blankly. "I sure can."

"I've been wondering," Sasuke said to Sakura. "What happens to children in this place? I mean, will they ever grow up, given the fact that humans don't age here."

"Actually yes." The pinkette replied.

"The magic in this realm works in such a way that children will usually keep growing until they have reached full maturity. Typically between eighteen to twenty-one years of age."

Sasuke nodded.

"Anyway," Manda started. "Alaska and I are going to make sure that lunch is ready for anyone who wants some."

"Yes!" Naruto punched the air. "I'm starving."

"What's new?" Gaara deadpanned.

Laughing, the two girls walked off in the direction of the dining room.

"I should go get the equipment set up." Hinata mumbled before leaving through the left hallway.

"What equipment?" Neiji asked.

"For training, after lunch." Tenten replied.

"Training?" Neiji raised one eyebrow.

All his friends standing around him were highly skilled shinobi, the best of the best. Why would she think that they needed training when they should be focusing on figuring out what the next step was in defeating Lucian?

Tenten had an idea of what was running through all their minds but she did not elaborate further, instead, she began taking a few steps backwards to where Hinata had exited.

"I'll explain later, I should go help Hinata first," she said, before turning her back to the group.

"Well, that just leaves us to show you around." Ino said to them.

"As you can see, the dining room is just straight down." She pointed at the window-lined room. "And the kitchen is further down through it."

"Tenten's room and the library tower is down the hall on the left, and Manda's room is on the right."

Next, she led them up the right stairway to the second floor, which was a large, rectangular landing, decorated by an embroidered carpet. Long windows lined the far end, letting in the afternoon sun.

Two oak double doors stood facing each other across the landing.

"These are two of the guestrooms." Ino indicated to the doors.

"There are two more down that way." She pointed to where the landing continued to the left. "There is one more on the right, and my room is that way as well." She then pointed to where another hallway stretched out on the right side of the landing.

"Two of you will have to share a room," Sakura said.

"Not it!" Kiba immediately yelled and Akamaru followed it with a bark.

"Me too." Neiji was next.

"Same here." Sasuke added.

"Me neither." Gaara followed.

Sai just looked around at everyone, confused.

"What sort of game are we playing?"

The girls couldn't help but giggle, although they quickly covered their mouths.

"Looks like you and I are going to be roommates." Naruto smiled as he threw an arm over Sai's shoulders.

"Oh." Sai looked at Naruto before turning to the other boys.

"Someone needs to teach me that game."

"C'mon!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm a great roommate."

Sasuke scoffed. "No, you snore like a warthog and don't clean up after yourself."

"Charming." A voice said from behind them, and everyone turned to see Alaska standing at the top of the right staircase.

"It's one of his many talents." Gaara added.

Alaska laughed. "Good to know."

"Lunch is ready by the way. Manda and I will be in the library; we're going to see if we can find anything that's going to be of help. We'll let you guys know if we do."

Neiji nodded. "Thank you."

Alaska just gave a small smile before making her way back down the stairs.

Ino hurried on with the rest of the tour by briefly, adding that the third floor could be accessed by a spiral staircase at the end of the right hallway. She also added that Sakura's, Aya's and Alaska's rooms were on the third floor, whereas Hinata's room was at the top of the tower, following the spiral stairs.

The two girls then led the shinobi back down to the dining room where keepers brought out a hot lunch consisting of steamed buns, and placed them on the rectangular mahogany table.

"Where do the keepers here stay?" Sai asked as he placed a few pork and sesame buns on his plate.

"Oh they don't live here." Sakura replied. "They'll ride back to Angel Falls in the evening, and the keepers aren't usually here everyday."

"Tenten, Manda, Hinata and Alaska built this place for themselves, as their own private slice of peace."

"How did you come to stay with them then?"

"Sai!" Kiba gave him a chastising look.

Sakura's eye twitched in annoyance. This guy really had no sense of practical manners.

"Long story short, they gave us a place to stay whenever things got bad at the Vampir palace after Lucian commandeered command of the three Vampir Kingdoms. This place became our escape."

"How did they lose their pa-" Sai had started to ask another question, but Sasuke clamped his hand over Sai's mouth.

"I think that's enough for today."

Sakura eyed Sasuke before focusing her attention on her meal instead. 'Great', she thought…now she would have to thank him.

After their meal, the group headed down the left corridor and out the back patio to the base of the mountain, where Tenten and Hinata were waiting. The two girls had set up a few obstacles such as hurdles and even a large, rock wall, which was probably Tenten's work.

Ino and Sakura did not follow the boys out onto the grounds but stayed under the shade that the patio provided.

"What is this 'training' regarding?" Neiji asked.

"Look," Tenten turned to him. "I know what you're thinking and we don't mean any disrespect by this training session. We know that you are skilled shinobi."

"The thing is, you are skilled in what you have known your whole lives. Out here, away from almost everything you have known, there are a different set of rules when it comes to combat, because you won't be fighting with humans anymore – or mortals for that matter."

"There are one too many things out there that go 'bump in the night', and these training sessions will just be our way of teaching you more about our world and what to expect."

Neiji seemed to mull all this over for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, I understand."

"Okay, good. We'll start off with a creature that you have all already heard about, Werewolves."

"Basically, Werewolves are beings that are part man and part wolf. When they are in their human form, they may not pose as much of a threat as opposed to…perhaps a Vampir."

"However, they will still be true to their nature; hot tempered and blood thirsty. So you have to be wary of the distance that you put between yourself and a Werewolf in human form should you ever confront one, as they cannot control their anger and impulses."

"The real problem," Tenten continued. "Arises during the full moon, when a Werewolf has no choice but to transform into its wolf form. In this form, it has no memories or emotions in relation to its human self and is purely – for lack of a better word – an animal."

"When in combat with a transitioned wolf, there are three things you need to remember. Firstly, they are immortal, so in order to kill them, the wound has to be extremely fatal. Beheading usually does the trick. Secondly, they have an aversion to silver, much like the Vampirs and sunlight. However, though this may slow them down, it will not kill them. Lastly, a transitioned wolf is even more unpredictable, especially when they move, and tend to hunt in packs."

"The key to injuring them is anticipation. For example, imagine them moving between only two points. Watch them at Point A, keep an eye out for any distinct changes, and when they do move, watch how they do it and anticipate a Point B."

"That's all I can explain to you for now. You might understand it better after trying for yourself." Tenten said, before bending down close to the ground.

Spreading her arms out on either side, she touched her palm to the dirt and slowly brought them back up. Using the soil, Tenten had created two dog-like creatures.

However, when she removed her hands from their backs, they were able to stand on their hind legs, although they were slightly hunched over. Their features were canine, with long snouts and pointed ears, but there was something sinister and twisted about the way their lips pulled back in a snarl.

"Who wants to go first?" Tenten asked.

Neiji stepped forward. The whole training concept intrigued him. The rest of the shinobi moved back to stand under the shade of the patio with Ino and Sakura so as to give Neiji more room.

"Ready?"

The Hyuuga responded with a curt nod. Immediately, the two 'Werewolves' dropped down onto all fours and charged at Neiji.

Tenten had meant it when she said that Werewolves were unpredictable in their movements. The two creatures did not run in an expected trajectory, instead, they were constantly moving and weaving in-between the obstacles, as if they could not decide where they wanted to go.

"Byakugan!" Neiji activated his bloodline limit so as to easily track the way the creatures moved.

With his Byakugan, Neiji was able to recognise the pattern of their movements and quickly extracted two kunai, throwing them both at one of the werewolves. The kunai's flew threw the werewolves' neck and abdominal section, causing it to collapse.

However, the moment he'd thrown the kunai, the other werewolf had closed in on him and lunged. In an immediate defensive reaction, Neiji yelled "Kaiten!" and spun his body around in rapid succession, creating a barrier around himself and flinging the werewolf back at least two hundred meters.

The werewolf that his kaiten had knocked back was still unconscious, but the one that he'd thrown his kunai at was starting to get up. Neiji prepared himself to attack but was slammed onto his front.

He felt the pressure of a sharp set of teeth against his neck and heard the collective gasp of his friends. Before he could attempt anything further, the pressure on his back and neck vanished and he craned his neck up to see Tenten offering him a hand.

Taking it, Neiji let the girl help him to his feet before looking around once more, slightly confused. Before him stood three werewolves instead of two. The third one must have attacked him from his blind spot.

He looked to Tenten. "That was a foul trick."

Tenten merely smirked.

"Perhaps, but it's effective."

"Next lesson." This time Tenten addressed the group.

"When I say they attack in packs, I rally do mean _packs_. That's definitely going to be more than two, more than three even."

"Also, I cannot emphasize the fact that your attack has to be lethal. Don't waste time on defensive moves. The quicker the kill, the better. While your injuries may hinder you, werewolves are just going to keep healing and charging at you over and over again until…well, you get the picture."

"Projectile weapons are always going to be your best bet as you'll want to avoid a werewolf getting too close to you. Once they get their teeth around your neck, you're pretty much done for."

Tenten let all she had said sink in for a moment before speaking to the shinobi once more.

"So who's next?" she asked, but Neiji immediately stepped into her field of vision.

"Again," he said.

Tenten just smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

"_So who's next?" she asked, but Neiji immediately stepped into her field of vision._

"_Again," he said._

_Tenten just smiled._

"Tenten is really drilling them." Manda said as she watched the group from behind one of the library's large, arched windows.

The whole first floor of the library was lined with windows, allowing a clear view onto the grounds. A pair of white oak double doors led from the hallway into the circular room.

Towers of books lined the walls and extended up to the stained glass ceiling, which was actually the base of a second floor built into the tower. A staircase was fitted against the shelves and followed the curvature of the room upwards.

A long landing was present after each flight of stairs and roll-able ladders on the first floor as well as each landing made for easy access to the books. The stairs continued all the way up to a hole in the ceiling, which led to the next level of the tower.

"And you're surprised?" Came the reply from further up the tower.

"Actually…no. Just saying."

Manda continued watching and cringed as Neiji neatly dodged the razor claws of one werewolf figurine before hurling it at a tree with a kunai and explosive tag lodged in it, causing both the werewolf and the tree to explode.

"Oh, Tenten is not going to be happy that he blew that tree up."

When Alaska didn't comment on that, Manda looked up to see her hidden behind the railing on the third landing, seated down as she flipped through one book and inspected the spine of the book they had found in Konoha.

"Find anything?" Manda called out to her.

"Kind of."

"What do you mean kind of?" Manda asked as she made her way up to the landing where Alaska sat

"Well," Alaska started without removing her gaze from both books. "All I've managed to find is an Arcaic translation script."

"The words on the spine of that old story book are definitely Arcaic however, they appear to be two different words, probably with different meanings. The thing is, I've only managed to find one of the words." Alaska finally looked up.

"It means 'Staff'". But I can't find the other word anywhere in this book." She handed the script over to Manda for her to inspect.

"Why don't you take a look, maybe a fresh pair of eyes will do some good?" Alaska added as she stood up.

"Sure."

"I'm going to go see if I can dig up some history books. Maybe it's a symbol and not exactly an actual word."

"Could be." Manda nodded. "I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Okay." Alaska stood up and closed the translation script with a long sigh.

Manda placed a comforting hand on the girls shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll find something. Just be patient."

"Even with all the time in the world, I've never been a particularly patient person. And time isn't exactly a luxury we have right now." Alaska said.

"It'll be okay." Manda gave Alaska's shoulder a pat before turning and heading back down the corridor and the stairs to the landing just below.

Alaska tried to take comfort in her words but she knew that nothing would be 'okay' as long as Lucian was still out there wreaking havoc and destroying innocent lives. If no one stopped him, if he was allowed to continue on, it would not be long before the balance between light and dark started to tip. Manda knew that as well.

-000-

The sun was beginning to lower in the sky, painting the evening in hues of orange and pink, before Tenten finally ended the training session.

After his first mistake and misjudgment in not taking Tenten's advice seriously, Neiji completely focused himself during his second attempt, imagining as if he was in a real battle. His efforts shined through and he took the down the creatures with his usual ease and grace, even earning a nod of acknowledgment from Tenten when he walked up to each werewolf to double check if they were still alive.

"Overachiver." Naruto had muttered.

Sai had volunteered next, impressing Tenten with his 'Choju Giga' technic." After closely watching Neiji's fights, Sai had managed to recreate drawings of the werewolves and brought them to life using his technic. However, the creatures moved at an incredibly fast speed and he had only managed to sketch out two replicas to counter two of Tenten's own creations.

This left him vulnerable to the third creature, its razor sharp claws just barely missing his face. However, with quick thinking and taijutsu, he had managed to recover and take it down swiftly.

Kiba had been the last person to try out the training exercise that day. Dropping onto all fours, the Inuzuka had used his clans 'Shikyaku no Jutsu' technic to enhance his speed and reflexes. This allowed him to almost match the speed and strength of the werewolves, and he charged for one while Akamaru headed for another.

It was evident that his plan had been to attack two wolves, before going after the third together with Akamaru. However, this seemed to have backfired as the third wolf suddenly turned feral and leapt at the white dog, pinning him down - although Kiba knew that his companion would have been seriously injured, had this been a real fight.

Never the less, Kiba reacted quickly and slammed himself into the third werewolf, knocking him a distance away.

"Garoga!" he had yelled as he combined himself with his ninken, creating a single, two-headed gigantic animal that swirled in a violent vortex towards the werewolf, disintegrating it entirely.

Kiba stood panting in the wake of his jutsu, while Tenten congratulated him on a job well done before running through the highlights of that day's training session.

"I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't impressed." She started. "But there is a pattern where all of you can take down the first two targets easily and the last one becomes a dangerous problem."

"Like I said, a pack is definitely bigger than just three Werewolves. If you're fighting as a team, I doubt you'll face any serious problems, but alone or even in two's, a pack of Werewolves is going to be a hard kill."

"We'll continue tomorrow after breakfast."

"If you excuse me, I have something I need to do."

With that, Tenten walked briskly pass the group and back into the villa.

Hinata watched her go, before turning to look at Sakura and Ino, unsure of what to say to the group.

"C'mon!" Ino chirped excitedly, trying to distract the shinobi from Tenten's odd behaviour. "Dinner should be ready!"

The group made their way back down the hall and to the dining room. A large, steaming dish of Tomato cream soup had been served along with an assortment of breads.

Manda was present in the room, juggling a tray with two bowls of soup as she picked out a few rolls of bread. Aya and Reiruki were also in the room, enjoying dinner.

"Hi mama!" Aya waved and grinned when she spotted Sakura.

Once again, Sakura could feel a pair of onyx eyes boring into the back of her head, but she ignored them and walked over to kiss the little blonde on the top of her had before seating herself down next to her and helping herself to some dinner. Pointedly ignoring Sasuke's stare.

"Where's Tennie?" Manda asked, when she noticed the brunette missing from the group.

"She went back to her room, I think." Hinata answered.

"Why?" Manda popped a cinnamon bun into her mouth.

"Amandromeda, if you keep eating every single piece of bread there's not going to be any left for us, or on your tray for that matter." Ino laughed.

"Be quiet Illiyaino, I'm hungry."

"Anyway, what you were saying Hinata…before you were so rudely interrupted." Manda stuck her tongue out at Ino.

"Umm…well, I think Tenten is just tired. We were doing a mock training exercise, with Werewolves."

Manda stared at Hinata for a moment, before reaching over to load her tray up with more bread.

"Guess I should bring her some food then."

Manda had turned to leave but stopped at the entrance when she heard Naruto call out to her.

"Wait! Did you or Alaska manage to find any clues?" he asked.

Manda spun back round to face him, sloshing the contents of her soups and almost toppling the bread over.

"Oops." Manda said, mostly to herself.

Hinata just shook her head and sighed whilst Ino and Sakura snickered.

"Maybe next time Alaska should get the food, she's less likely to stain the floor with it." Sakura managed to say in between fits of laughter, but Manda just ignored her.

"Alaska's managed to find an Arcaic translation script and she's deciphered one of the words on the spine of that old book." Manda explained.

"It means 'Staff'"

"But we're having a problem translating the second word. Alaska thinks it could be a historic symbol instead of an actual word, so we're looking into that now."

"And the relic that Lucian has?" Gaara questioned.

The raven-haired girl just shook her head, trying not to look defeated.

"We have yet to find anything on that. But I'm sure we will." She forced a smile.

"It's barely been a day, and if we find figure out one clue, it will lead us to the next one. Step by step yeah?"

"When…" Hinata murmured. "_When _you figure out one clue."

Manda's face fell for a moment, but she quickly recovered and gave Hinata a genuine smile.

"Enjoy dinner!" she said to everyone before leaving the dining room.

"I've been meaning to ask…" Neiji began as soon as Manda had left.

"I'm still a little curious as to why Alaska is fireproof."

Knowing Hinata would not initiate an answer, Sakura spoke up first.

"About that," she said as she tore a small loaf of baked bread into two. "Alaska is a type of being that history has come to call an 'Elemental'."

"An 'Elemental'?" Sai questioned.

Sakura nodded. "Yup, Hinata, Tenten and Manda are Elemental's as well."

"What is an Elemental, exactly?" Neiji was intrigued now.

"Elemental's are Angels who have been gifted with affinities for the four elements. For example, Hinata is an air Elemental."

"What does that mean?"

"Simply put, while Ino or myself could make use of magic to manipulate air, Hinata commands it. She is the physical embodiment of the element."

"And Tenten, Manda and Alaska…what Elemental's are they?" Kiba interjected.

"Earth, water and fire." Sakura stated respectively before dipping her bread into her soup and taking a bite.

"How do you become an Elemental?" This time it was Naruto.

"You can't simply become one." Ino answered since Sakura's mouth was full.

"Elemental's are born as they are."

"It's a pretty rare occurrence actually, happens every few centuries. More so now given that Alaska and Manda are not purely of Angel descent."

"So Alaska's father was a Vampir then?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes."

"And Manda…" he left the sentence hanging, knowing that the girls would understand what he meant.

"Her father was a Vampir as well." Sakura replied.

"And how are they related to you two?"

"Alaska's father was Lucian's elder brother. Manda's father was actually Lucian's twin."

"So they were all part of the Vampir royal family." Gaara clarified.

"Yes."

"Then why do their last names differ?"

"They took the last names of their mothers, makes it easier to move around undetected."

"What's the story behind all that?" Sai wondered. "Since your races don't seem to like each other all that much."

"I'm afraid that's not our story to tell." Sakura stated graciously. "You'll have to ask Alaska and Manda yourselves."

"And what about you two, what are your stories then?" Naruto asked with a smile.

The two Vampir sisters looked at each, before nodding simultaneously as if finally deciding on something.

"Our parents" Ino started, "had an arranged marriage for the same old typical reason."

"Hanayuri – out mother – was from a prestigious Vampir clan. Their marriage was planned so as to merge her clan with the royal family simply for power."

"Our mother went along with it because she had no choice, but she believed in marrying for love, and Lucian was far from loving her. The last thing she wanted to do was bring children into a world like that but –" Ino's voice broke and she covered her mouth, shaking her head as she did.

Sakura placed a hand on Ino's back and was about to continue from where the blonde had left off, but Ino signaled for her to stop.

"No Sak, I need to do this."

Sakura nodded, but she kept her hand on Ino's back.

"But being second-in-line for the throne, Lucian still needed an heir. Of course, you can imagine his 'joy' when out mother gave birth to girls both times." Ino let out a deep sigh.

"However, our mother went through three miscarriages and one stillborn in the next ten years. When it looked like she would not be able to bear another child, Lucian turned to…other means."

"He wasn't discreet about his affairs either, but no one dared to go against him. He thought he could get away with anything, and for awhile, he did."

"But our mother was scared of what Lucian might do to us if he were to gain a male heir so she turned to the only person she could think of to help, Lucian's older brother and Alaska's father Pyotr."

"She made the journey to where he lived, in a castle on one of the eastern islands, and told him about her situation. That was when he and his wife - Christellanne – told her about the Olympic Valley and agreed to help hide us should the situation ever arise."

"Our mother's instincts had been right and as soon as Lucian had a male heir, he ordered for us to be killed. We followed Christelleanne's instructions and escaped to the Olympic Valley, though just barely."

"And your mother?" Kiba asked.

"She stayed. She knew that if she left with us, her clan would be killed. At the same time, it was also her insurance because as long as she was married to Lucian, he could not harm her as her clan would retaliate against him."

"But we were still able to see her a handful of times over the years, although we could not risk any more than that."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "Most of us at this table know what it's like to grow up without a proper family."

Sakura nodded. "Thank you. But in the end, the Angels became our family. Please don't feel sorry for us."

The Uzumaki smiled at Sakura before turning to Hinata.

"And what about you Hinata? Tell us your history."

The girl in question stared down at the table as she answered.

"My story is the simplest and shortest actually. My parents both fought together during the 'Second Great War', and they were both killed on the battlefield."

"I was three years old."

No one said anything, as no one knew how to respond to that. Finally, Naruto broke the silence.

"Even though it may seem short and simple to others, it is still a big deal to _you_. Losing parents is never short and simple. Trust me, I lost mine the day I was born."

Hinata could not help but gawk at Naruto. Not only because of what he had said, but because he had done it with a giant grin on his face.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." was all she could think to say to him at that moment.

"Why don't we call it a day?" Ino said. "I'm sure everyone wants to get some rest."

"If you'd like, there's a waterfall lake ten minutes in to the forest where you can bathe and relax. Just follow the path where the forest opens from the training grounds."

"I'll take them." Reiruki spoke up.

"Okay." Ino noted. "And there are also robes and changes of clothes for you in your rooms."

With that, everyone at the table stood up and prepared to leave the room but Sakura pulled Sasuke aside in order to speak to him.

"Don't _you _move fast?" Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up before I decide to take back whatever I'm about to say."

"And what might that be, pray tell?"

"Look, I just wanted to thank you for intervening this morning with Sai and keeping things from getting too uncomfortable."

The Uchiha seemed to take a moment to absorb what she had said to him before merely nodding.

"Hn." Was all he said before turning away and leaving the room.

Sakura just stared, mouth agape and fists clenched as she tried not to fume.

"Oh Sakura." He paused at the doorway and looked at her over his shoulder

"What?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry about your ribs." He added before exiting.

-000-

Gaara let out a deep breath and felt his chest fall with it.

'Peace' he thought, was the first thing that came to mind when he looked out into the night. His room was cozy, but luxurious at the same time with a large bed, set in front of a fireplace, and a balcony that overlooked the lake at the villa's edge. A door that led to a nicely sized bathroom sat in a corner of his room next to the oak closet and a chest of drawers. He was surprised - though not entirely - to find that the villa contained numerous modern amenities such as electricity and plumbing.

In all truth, Gaara could feel sleep creeping in on him, and he had no fear of being plagued by his nightmares as Alaska had said that the altering of his dreamlight would be effective for a few nights.

However, he simply could not tear himself away from the view before him. The luminescent crescent moon was mirrored clearly in the darkened lake, along with a smattering of stars.

This world he was in seemed so close and yet somehow so far from the one he had left behind. The night was quiet, its silence broken only by the cool breeze rustling the trees nearby. For the first time in what seemed like a very long time, Gaara could hear himself think, and merely enjoy the company of only his thoughts.

Then, something else weaved its way into the stillness, a soft yet mellifluous melody.

Curious, Gaara poked his head out of his door and noted that the tune was coming from the great hall. Wondering who could still be up, he closed the door behind him and made his way down the stairs.

Apparently, it was Alaska, who was seated at the grand piano, her practiced hands effortlessly running over the keys. She was dressed in a dusty pink satin slip with black lace trimmings, over which she had thrown on a silken black kimono robe.

Upon hearing Gaara's footsteps, she stopped playing and looked up to see him standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Please," he said. "Don't stop on my account."

Alaska merely smiled but did not resume her playing.

"Do you _ever _sleep?" she asked.

"I could say the same about you." He replied.

She laughed lightly.

"I'm not usually up this late, I just have a lot on my mind and this" she patted the piano "helps me clear my head."

Gaara nodded.

"I was just up enjoying the view." He motioned to the lake that lay beyond the marble veranda.

Alaska turned her attention to the lake as well and gazed out at the night for a moment.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Alaska said as more of a statement than a question. "I love the night sky, makes me think of infinite possibilities."

"What does it make _you _think of?" Alaska turned back to see Gaara staring over at her.

"It doesn't." he shrugged. "That's what I like about it."

Alaska could not help but laugh at that.

"Touché."

"Well I think it's about time I head to bed. You should too, tomorrow's another long day." Alaska said as she shut the lid of the piano and stood up.

"Goodnight Gaara." She smiled as she passed by him.

"You know," Gaara said suddenly, making her pause and face him.

"Yeah?"

"Sometimes you smile like you have a secret."

Alaska found herself walking back towards him, although she stood a step above so that she could be on eye level with him. Even then, he was still slightly taller than her.

'The woes of being short.' She thought to herself.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No."

"It's an interesting thing."

Alaska waited for an explanation but it seemed as if that was all he had to say about the matter. The corners of her lips turned upwards.

"I could say the same about you."

"Touché."

"Goodnight Alaska."

"Goodnight." She nodded and smiled once more before making her way back to her room.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

"_Goodnight Alaska."_

"_Goodnight." She nodded and smiled once more before making her way back to her room._

The following days were spent in constant training, with the shinobi perfecting their combat skills against Tenten's werewolves. Neiji was also surprised to find that the tree he'd blown up had strangely been restored.

Once they had pretty much perfected their understanding and techniques on how to cleanly and efficiently take down a Werewolf, they trained against the two Vampirs and subsequently the two Angels as well.

Kiba had been slightly wary as he prepared himself for his match against Hinata. The girl was just so incredibly tiny and reserved, as opposed to Tenten, who made up for her small size with a big attitude and an aggressive fighting style. Even though the fight would be a friendly spar with a 'no magic' rule attached to it, Kiba was afraid he'd end up accidentally hurting her.

His expectations of the match had been shattered however, when Hinata proved that she was able to use her small size to an advantage. Being faster and lighter on her feet, she was able to dodge all of Kiba's head-on attacks and patiently wait for the right moment to draw her sword and retaliate.

"I underestimated you," Kiba said to Hinata as she sheathed her sword.

The girl immediately blushed at the comment.

"Yes, p…people tend to do that."

The Inuzuka just grinned and rubbed the spot on the side of his neck where Hinata's sword had grazed.

"That was amazing Hinata!" Naruto suddenly yelled and pumped his fist as he strolled over. "You were so graceful!"

Hinata turned beat red and hastily dropped her gaze to her feet so as to hide her face.

"T-thank you." She managed.

Sakura looked at Ino and sighed.

"That is just too painful to watch."

"Don't tell me you've never had a crush before." Sasuke deadpanned.

Sakura turned to stare pointedly at him.

"Of course I have, but if I wanted the guy, I'd go after him."

"Or her." Ino added.

"Kinky." Sasuke smirked.

"Ino!" Sakura yelled at her sister who was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Ino giggled.

"INO!"

"Don't you dare believe a word she says!" Sakura pointed a finger at Sasuke.

"And wipe that smirk off your face." She proceeded to poke him in the chest.

Sasuke merely continued to agitate Sakura by raising both his hands as if surrendering and taking a few steps back.

"Who am I to believe if not your own sister?"

He continued to walk backwards.

"You know she's just spouting rubbish!"

Sakura took a few steps forward.

"Am not." Ino was having full-blown fits of laughter by now.

"Shut up Ino!"

"Why are you being so defensive then?"

"Uchiha!" Sakura stormed after him.

"Look at that, you're coming after me."

Sakura immediately halted.

"Only to beat you up Uchiha!" she growled.

"Is that so?"

"What did I miss?" Kiba asked moved to stand beside Ino and watch the drama unfold.

"Just me, getting in my fair share of annoying Sakura."

Kiba laughed deeply. "That's what sisters are for."

Ino looked up at him.

"You sound like you have a sister of your own."

He nodded. "I do, an elder sister. Hana."

Ino watched as a number of emotions crept onto his face and flashed in his eyes. Love for his sister, worry for her, and probably his family as well. Along with that worry came fear, concern and sadness.

"Do you miss her, your sister?"

Kiba looked at Ino and scratched his head. "Yeah, just a little."

"Only a little?" Ino smiled.

"An argument could be made for a lot, but you'll never get it out of me."

"Challenge accepted."

Another deep laugh rolled through Kiba.

"It's just complicated sometimes, when we're both shinobi's, out in the field, not knowing if the other is alive."

Ino was silent for a moment as she thought about what he had just said.

"What if I could help you contact her?" She asked him.

"Is that safe?"

"I promise that it will be. I'll take the necessary precautions. I wouldn't be asking you if it would risk jeopardizing everyone here."

Kiba nodded his understanding.

"Yeah, I'd like to get a message out to her."

"After dinner then, when the sun has set. It's the safest time to send out a message."

-000-

More stories were also being shared every evening, with the shinobi elaborating on their highs and lows in life as well.

The girls nodded when Kiba and Neiji spoke about their clans; sympathized when Naruto told them about his parents and Sai rushed through a brief version of his 'Root' days; and looked at each other knowingly when Sasuke spoke about the murder of his clan.

He had conveniently left out the part where his brother had told him the truth behind the murder. As hard as it was for him to admit it to himself, that part was still too painful to re-live, and too personal to share.

Although he had a feeling almost everyone at the table was still hiding a particular something about themselves. A piece of their own past that they were not ready to share with people they had only just met.

That evening, Tenten took her turn to tell her own story.

"My parents were two people who never should have met." She dived right in.

"If Hinata told you about her parents I assume she mentioned the Second Great War?"

"She mentioned it, but she never went into any details about it." Neiji clarified.

Tenten nodded.

"Okay, unlike the First Great War, which was a mass battle between Humans, Vampirs and Werewolves, the Second Great War took place between Angels and well…Angels."

"That's hard to believe." Gaara said, thinking about how peace seemed to surround the valley.

"These other angels aren't like us, they are a different _kind _of Angel." Tenten explained. "We call them the 'Izganni'. Directly translated from our language of Anoíl it means 'Outcast'."

"What do you mean by different _kind_?" Sasuke asked. "Different, like an Elemental?"

"No, not like an Elemental."

"Being an Elemental just means I am the embodiment of a certain element, but an Izganni is an Angel who has forsaken the Light and has chosen to serve the Darkness instead."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Same old reason. They were tempted by the seductive powers of Darkness."

"My parents were involved in the war in a slightly different way than Hinata's parents. My father fought on the side of Light, until he met my mother, who was an Izganni."

Looks of astonishment and surprise settled on the faces of all the boys. It was clear that no one expected to hear something like that.

"No one really knows how they met but some of the Angels who fought in the war with my father assumed that he had found her - most likely injured - in the Carpathian Mountains."

"Why did they think she was injured?" Kiba asked.

"My father had been scouting the mountains that day with a group of Angels as there had been reported Izganni sightings in that area. That was the day my father went missing, or so everyone thought."

"It wasn't soon after he went missing, that medical supplies belonging to the Angels began to go missing. After the war, when everyone began to put two and two together, that's the assumption they made."

"Why would you need medical supplies though? I thought Angels were immortal?" Neiji asked.

"We live for a very very long time and we heal at amazing speeds yes, but a fatal wound is wound nonetheless. And while a fatal wound drawn by a mortal weapon would is not cause for much worry, an Etherealite blade usually does the trick. They were rare, but even the Izganni managed to get their hands on some."

"Etherealite blade?" Sai questioned.

"Simply put it is a blade forged from the gates of Heaven."

"Do you own such weapons?" Neiji asked again.

"No, there are none left on this earth. The Angels who chose to return after the war took the remaining Etherealite blades with them so that they would not fall into the hands of mortals or any other immortal being."

When Neiji nodded, indicating that he had no further questions, Tenten continued on with her story.

"Anyway, no one really thought much of the stolen supplies though. The real shock came when the Angels - his old friends in battle - all saw him fighting against them, as an Izganni."

"What differentiates an Izganni from an Angel exactly?" Kiba asked.

"During the war, when the Izganni's were first coming about, they were harder to distinguish. The only difference was in their wings, which would have turned a dull grey. Quite a few feathers would have fallen off as well."

"And now?" Neiji questioned.

"'And now' what?"

"Just, the way you said it, 'During the war'…makes it seem as if they've changed since then, appearance wise."

Tenten eyed the Hyuuga, intrigued. He really was quite the genius, she grudgingly admitted. She doubted anyone else at the table would have picked up on that subtlety.

"Now," she answered without breaking eye contact with Neiji. "The Izganni have spent hundreds of years falling into Darkness that they have become unrecognizable." She returned to addressing everyone else at the table.

"They have completely lost their wings, their skin would have turned yellow and sullen, sinking in around their face and body. And their eyes…would be the colour of dried blood. They like to hide their faces because of all this. Usually with hoods or masks."

"When the war ended and the Izganni were defeated, the few that remained went into hiding. Some Angels went out looking for them, and that was when they came across my mother and father."

"It was in the same place he had vanished, the Carpathian Mountains.

"My father attacked them, but they were hesitant to retaliate because my mother had been holding a baby…me.

"But they were outnumbered and knew that they didn't have a chance against the Angels so in an attempt to escape, they left me there and fled."

"Haven't been seen since."

"Wait, so your parents are still alive?" Kiba was genuinely shocked.

Tenten couldn't blame him since she never actually mentioned they were alive and preferred to let the shinobi assume whatever they had wanted to instead.

"Supposedly."

"Oh." Kiba didn't know what else to say.

She'd never said anything about the scars on her forehead, Sasuke noted. Another piece of a past that was not meant to be shared.

Neiji could not help but notice as well.

"There's something else." Tenten continued without acknowledging Kiba's discomfort.

"Remember the riders that were chasing us that night in the Kuroshi forest?"

Everyone nodded simultaneously.

"We think - or rather Alaska thinks - that they were Izganni…carrying out orders from Lucian."

"So you're saying the Izganni are under Lucian's command?" Gaara asked.

"By definition, the Izganni work for the Darkness, or serve it, same thing. So if they really are carrying out orders from Lucian, its possible that Darkness is on his side."

"I take it that's a very bad thing."

"Oh." Sakura started. "You have no idea."

-000-

After dinner, the boys had made the short walk over to the small waterfall that was considerably hidden by thick trees, brush and various wildflowers. Their were shower and bath facilities in their own rooms, but the waterfall truly was a relaxing place to kick back after a long day of training. The thick cover made the place ideal for a private bath. Adding to that, the surprisingly warm water from the falls emptied into a shallow pool before filtering off between rocks and into a trickling stream.

Kiba let out a long, euphoric sigh as he stood under the falls and let the rush of water wash of the grime from the long day of training. He'd never really been the type of person to enjoy a long bath. Instead, he'd usually be in and out in under five minutes, something his mother and sister always nagged at him about as they thought it unhygienic.

However, here, in the forest, surrounded by so such beautiful greenery and landscapes, Kiba felt obligated to enjoy his bath.

He was also in a particularly good mood as he would be able to send out a message to his family in just a few short hours. And hopefully, they would send him a reply, and he'd be able to find out if they were safe.

He still had to write the letters though, so he knew that he couldn't take too long at the falls. He would just enjoy his bath long enough so that he would have enough time to return to his room and craft out the letters before meeting Ino after dinner.

Ino.

The girl was a typical looker, that much was obvious, though to be frank, he'd dated other girls just as hot, and some, not so much. What really struck him about the Vampir however, was the fact that she'd lost her mother only a few days before and yet she standing strong and focusing on what needed to be done instead.

Most of the girls he knew, even some kunoichi, would have been filled with too much grief to face the world, and would have holed themselves up instead. It was obvious that Sakura was the stronger one between the two, and even though her mother's death must have affected her, her strength just meant that it was easier for her to pull through. Ino on the other hand, was still having trouble grasping what had happened. He could see it in her eyes sometimes, the way they would quiver, as if she was straddling the lines of completely breaking down and fighting her sorrow. Then a moment later, the blue in her eyes would steady, and she'd re-focus on all the other problems she had to face.

Finally, Kiba pushed himself out of the pool and started toweling himself off. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky and he needed to get started on those letters.

"Where are you rushing off to? Sai asked.

"Ino said she would help me send out letters to my mum and sis, and I need to write them. I've got to pass them to her before dinner."

"Is that safe?" Neiji asked.

"She said that she would take all the necessary precautions to make sure it would be."

"I'll make sure to get news out to the rest of your families as well."

Neiji nodded. "So…Ino."

Kiba froze halfway as he was pulling on a fresh pair of pants.

"That's a good look for you." Naruto burst out laughing.

Kiba just growled and continued to dress.

"Shut up," he said when he was finally done, and began gathering his sweat-stained training gear.

"I never said anything, but you're reacting quite suspiciously."

Almost everyone in the pool was beginning to snicker now.

"She's just helping me send a letter to my family, nothing more."

"But Neiji never said there was anything more." Sai added with a straight face.

Kiba stared at him, wondering if he was aware if what Neiji was getting at, or merely taking everything literally.

"Yes, she's helping _you _send a letter." Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, so? That doesn't mean anything. C'mon Sasuke, Gaara, back me up here."

"I'm staying out of this." Gaara deadpanned and sank lower into the water.

"Me too." Sasuke smirked.

"Some friends you are." Kiba scoffed. "Well, at least I wasn't showing off to her during training." The Inuzuka stared pointedly and Neiji, referring to his training session with Tenten, but the Hyuga was unfazed.

"I always work hard, even in training. I beg your pardon if my skills – or your lack thereof – made it seem like I was intentionally drawing attention to myself."

Kiba growled once more and threw his sweaty clothes at the Hyuga, who easily avoided it.

"Don't take your anger out on me and contaminate the water."

"Hmph…idiot." Kiba said as he fished his clothes out of the water and strutted back to the villa with as much dignity as he could muster.

-000-

It was nightfall by the time Kiba had finished scribbling out his letter. By this time, the floor around his mahogany table was littered with scraps of parchment and his hands were stained with ink.

Kiba had never been once for letter writing. He just could not grasp the concept of putting thoughts into words. However, after multiple pieces of crumpled parchment and crossed out words, he had finally managed to give brief description as to where they were, what they were doing, what their goal was, and that everyone was safe.

Rolling up the parchment, Kiba left him room and bounded down the stairs two at a time. He found Ino waiting in the balcony just outside the Grand Hall. She turned around when she heard heavy footfalls.

"Easy there tiger," she said to him.

"Sorry I'm late." He came to a halt in front of her.

"I…had trouble writing."

Ino raised her eyebrows, placed her hands on her hips, threw her head back and laughed.

"What? Stop laughing! What's so funny?"

"It's a letter to your family, how hard can that be to write?"

"I - "

"Can you stop laughing!"

Ino let out a few more uncontrolled giggles before covering her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stop.

"Sorry." Another giggle.

"Look, I'm just not good with writing letters ok."

"Why? Can't get in touch with your emotional side?"

Another giggle.

Kiba simply shoved the parchment at Ino with an annoyed huff.

"Would you just send the letter!?"

"Alright, alright Mr. Grumpy Pants." Ino grasped the letter to her chest before it fell.

Turning around, Ino crossed over to the balcony rail where an eagle – that Kiba had not previously noticed – was perched. Silently, Ino slid the rolled parchment into a small leather tube attached to the eagles' leg. Capping the tube, Ino stuck her arm out for the brown bird to hop on to.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Kiba asked.

"Yes. I put a spell on him so that he can't be seen by anyone but your mother and sister."

"That's where you come in though." Ino motioned for him to move in closer.

"Why?" Kiba asked as he took a few steps towards her.

"Give me your hand." Kiba stuck his right hand out to her.

"Now close your eyes and picture Konoha as well as the faces of your mother and sister."

"I need to cast one more spell so he knows where to go and what to look for."

"Okay." Kiba obliged and did as Ino had told him to, letting images of gates of Konoha flow into his head along with his mother and sister, who were most likely involved with the clean up of the battle, either on the field or in the hospital.

With his eyes still closed, Kiba felt Ino shift slightly and felt the gust from what he guessed to be the beat of the eagles' wings. Opening his eyes, Kiba kept his gaze on Ino as hers remained on the eagle, watching as it vanished into the night.

Hmm.

"There, all done – what the." Ino started, but gasped in shock as Kiba pulled her in and pressed his lips firmly to hers.

**A/N: Thank you to readers who have been keeping up with my story, marking it as a favorite or leaving reviews (reviews are always very loved). I hope you've enjoyed this chapter as well. It makes me happy to know that you guys are enjoying the story. **


	12. Chapter 12

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

"_There, all done – what the." Ino started, but gasped in shock as Kiba pulled her in and pressed his lips firmly to hers._

Ino immediately shoved him away.

"Kiba!"

"Hmm."

"Hmm?! HMM?! You kiss me out of nowhere and all you can say is hmm?!"

"I've been wondering what it would be like to kiss you for awhile now."

Ino opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. This occurred three times before she finally managed a sentence.

"Yeah…well…now you know."

She attempted to stomp off but Kiba stepped into her path and went in for a second kiss. Ino placed two hands on his chest and shoved.

"Would you stop that?"

She wanted to yell but it came out in a hushed tone. It was time for dinner and she knew that people would be making their way past the Great Hall, which had a clear view of the balcony. Peaking over Kiba's shoulder, Ino sighed when she saw that the coast was still clear.

"Someone is going to see us."

Kiba scoffed.

"Yeah, its not like you're going to run to Sakura and tell her all about this the first chance you get."

Ino's jaw dropped.

"That is not true!" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Sure it's not."

"I…well…you…"

"Me?"

"What do you want from me?"

"A kiss, obviously."

Ino glared at him.

"What?" he questioned.

"Nothing. You got your kiss, I'm going." She pushed past him in a huff.

"Uh…okay." Kiba watched her make her way to the dining room, slightly confused.

The girl had done it again, hot to cold in a matter of minutes…women.

Ino could still feel the colour and heat in her cheeks as she made her way to the dining room. Whether she was flushed from embarrassment or anger, she wasn't sure. She stopped short when she saw Manda and Alaska already seated at the dining table.

"Why hello there." Manda smiled at her.

"Wh-when did you two get here?"

Ino tried to calmly sit herself down at the table. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Kiba was still in the hall, conversing with Naruto and Gaara.

"Oh, not too long ago." Alaska answered.

"I'm surprised you missed us, you must have been…preoccupied."

"You're making fun of me."

Alaska raised her cup of tea.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner."

"You two are doing this on purpose." Ino slouched lower in her chair and peaked over her shoulder at Kiba once again.

Still in the hall…safe.

"Doing what?" Both girls questioned in unison.

"Please don't start." Ino whined.

"Start what?" Once again, in unison.

At this point, Ino heard Sakura's voice carry through the hallway as she greeted the boys, and her footfalls as she made her way to the dining room.

'Oh no.' Ino thought.

Walking into the room, Sakura noted Ino's pained expression as well as Alaska's and Manda's amused ones.

"Are we tormenting Ino?" Sakura asked as she sat down beside the two other girls.

"Yes we are."

"Would you two stop that!" Ino yelled, exasperated. But immediately regretted in once she looked back out into the hall and saw all the boys glancing in their direction.

She tried to sink even lower in her chair without falling to the floor.

"Ooohh…What about?"

"Do not," Ino said pointedly to the two elementals.

"Do not what?"

Sakura burst out laughing.

"I love it when you two do that."

"Yeah sure." Ino pouted. "You love it when its not directed at you."

"Oh, it's been directed at her on numerous occasions." Alaska grinned.

"So she gets to laugh at me but not the other way around?"

'Well, it's not my fault that you weren't around to see me get humiliated." Sakura joked.

"That can be arranged."

Sakura eyed Alaska.

"No, no, no…this is not my moment in the spotlight."

It was Ino's turn to laugh.

"You know," Sakura started as she watched Ino struggle to withhold her giggles. "I still don't know what we're supposed to be teasing Ino about."

Ino immediately froze in silence. It did not help that the deeper voices belonging to the boys were getting closer. One more peak over her shoulder – shit they were making their way to the dining room.

Ino placed both hands on the table and leaned towards Sakura.

"Please spare me now, I'll explain later, and I will be eternally grateful if none of this gets mentioned throughout dinner." Ino rushed to say in a desperate attempt to silence the girls before the boys walked in.

"You do know that you have a long life ahead of you." Manda pointed out.

"Eternally grateful. Ino immediately looked over at Manda.

"Noted with pleasure." Sakura smirked.

Ino had a feeling she would regret saying that, but at this point, she was ready to do anything so as to avoid further embarrassment – especially since the boys were entering the dining room. Ino eyed the empty seat next to her and prayed that the boys would sit on the other side of the circular table.

Much to her relief, that was exactly what they did.

"What was with the yelling?" Naruto asked.

Flustered and unsure of what to say, Ino merely looked down at her hands.

"It was nothing." Alaska smiled. "Just teasing Ino."

"More like tormenting." The blonde mumbled.

"So…" Manda started. "Where is everyone else?"

"They should be here soon." Naruto answered.

"Whose turn is it to tell a story today?"

"I beg your pardon, a story?" Alaska stared at Naruto quizzically.

"Yup!"

Alaska looked at Sakura. "Please explain."

"Well…whilst the two of you have been busy in the library," Sakura indicated to Niya and Alaska, "We've all been sharing stories of our lives with each other."

"I see." Alaska nodded, before pushing her chair back and rising up from the table. "Speaking of the library, I should head back. Enjoy dinner." She said before exiting.

As she did, the rest of the Shinobi walked into the dining hall and she dipped her head slightly in a gesture of greeting as she passed by them. Gaara inconspicuously watched her stroll out of the room. There was that smile again, reappearing in an attempt to hide her emotions, from what he could tell.

"Give her some time." Manda suddenly said. "She's never been good with strangers."

As everyone spooned the meal of roast beef, rice and mixed vegetables brought in by the keepers onto their plates, Manda thought of how to begin her explanation.

"Sorry, I'm not really sure how I should start."

"Take your time." Naruto smiled.

Manda returned his smile before looking back down at her food. She quickly spooned a mouthful of food and took her time chewing and swallowing before finally finding the right words to begin with.

"As you know, my father is Lucian's twin…"

"Is?" Neiji interjected.

He, and all the other shinobi were under the assumption that besides Tenten's parents as well as Sakura's and Ino's father, everyone else had lost their folks.

"I'll get to that later."This guy never missed a beat.

"Like Hinata, Alaska and Tenten, I was born during the Second Great War. And while the Angels did defeat the Izganni in the end, there was a brief period where it seemed like we would lose."

"In desperation, there were talks among some of the Angels to join forces with other races."

"The Dog Demons agreed, but the Werewolves were never considered – too unpredictable as I'm sure Tenten has mentioned – and the Vampirs, well, they agreed…with a price."

"And what was that?" Sai inquired.

"An alliance, sealed through a marriage to my mother as well as Alaska's mother."

"When I say things were bad, I mean they were terribly, horrifically bad. More and more Angels were turning dark, especially when they realized that we were losing."

"The darkness can be…" she seemed to be searching for the right words. "Seductive, especially when hope seems lost. It revels in such moments."

"If you don't mind my asking, why your mother, and Alaska's? Out of all the Angels." Sasuke asked.

"Because they were the daughters of the two highest ranking Angels, Lady Jaal – who as you all know is Alaska's grandmother – and Lady Sung, who was my grandmother and second in command."

"What happened to your grandmother?" Sai again.

Manda paused to look at him. "Later."

"So…the alliance was sealed and the Vampirs helped fight against the Izganni. The war was won, and now with the alliance, the Angels could not harm the Vampirs, and vice versa…or so we thought."

"The day Alaska and I turned 21, the day we became old enough to rule, Lucian went after her family, and mine."

"My mother was killed whilst trying to protect me. My grandmother managed to escape with me, but she was very badly injured."

"We managed to make it to the valley before my grandmother collapsed from a head wound."

"How does access to the valley work by the way? I've been wondering." Neiji questioned.

"I've been wondering the same." Sasuke added.

Gaara nodded.

Manda looked at the shinobi sitting across from her before turning her attention to Hinata and Tenten.

"I'm afraid it's not something we can share with you." Tenten said to the boys.

"You still don't trust us." Neiji stated bluntly.

"Like you trust us?" she snapped back.

Neiji remained silent but kept his focus on Tenten.

"Ne…Neiji." Naruto looked over at his friend and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Manda." Gaara spoke to the girl, who looked like she was at a loss for what to do as well. "Please continue."

"Uh…right, sure." She nodded.

"Like I was saying…" She took a moment to gather her thoughts once more.

"My grandmother and I had escaped to the Valley but, amongst other injuries, her head had been wounded very badly."

"But you heal don't you?" Naruto checked with the girl.

"Yes, we heal, but…how can I put this…external injuries heal a lot easier and faster than internal ones."

Naruto remembered how Sakura's ribs had not managed to heal and set properly and he nodded his understanding.

"My grandmothers head healed, but her mind never fully recovered. I guess losing her daughter the way she did not help either."

"She struggled with her identity for years, before she finally lost herself and took her own life."

"What happened to your father?" Sai asked, noting that the man had not been mentioned.

Manda dropped her gaze.

"Who do you think helped Lucian destroy my family?"

No one said anything. No one knew what to say.

"I…" Manda started. "Think I'm going to go find Alaska." She pushed her chair out and left the room.

More silence followed her exit.

"Perhaps we should not share such stories of our past anymore." Gaara stated.

Surprisingly Tenten shook her head. "No, I think this is something we all need to do. We may not be able to share everything…yet. But some things must be, especially if we are to be able to trust each other." She looked at Neiji when she said this.

"Our pasts make us who we are, whether we like it or not."

This earned her collective nods from the shinobi at the table.

"Wise-ass." Sakura suddenly said, earning her laughing and chuckles.

Naruto grinned.

"So what's the training plan for tomorrow?" He asked eagerly.

"About tomorrow," Tenten said. "I won't be around, Sakura and Ino are going hunting, and Hinata is going to be in the library helping Alaska because Manda won't be in as well."

"So…I guess you can feel free to train on your own."

"Hunting?" Kiba questioned. "What for?"

"Uh…for food." Ino answered snarkily, which made Sakura eye her curiously.

"The meat on your plate doesn't magically appear you know."

"It was just a question." Kiba growled at her added commentary.

"And I was just answering." Ino snapped back.

"Is it safe?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes its safe." Sakura answered while Ino and Kiba continued with their staring contest. "We won't be leaving the valley to hunt."

"And where are you and Manda going?" Neiji asked Tenten.

"As Elementals, we each have a duty to nature and the elements, to maintain and ensure the balance."

"I oversee the forests of the West, Niya the lakes and oceans of the East, Alaska the southern deserts, and Hinata the northern mountains."

"Is there a specific rotation you adhere to?"

Tenten couldn't help but laugh at this.

"No, it's more like an internal feeling of being drawn to something."

"But you will have to leave the Valley for this?"

"Yes." Tenten nodded stiffly. "We will have to leave the Valley."

Even she knew how dangerous it was to leave the safety of the Olympic Valley at such a crucial time. But something was drawing her out, and she had to find out what it was.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**_

A cold front settled in the next day with heavy rain and biting winds.

"Man, its freezing today!" Naruto exclaimed as he burst into the library.

Alaska stared at the blonde and the rest of his friends quizzically as they entered the library. All of them were dressed warmly in long pants and sweaters.

"What are you doing here?" Alaska asked bluntly from where she stood by the window. She was dressed in a pair of black velvet pants and a cropped knit maroon sweater with entwined gold vines stitched on the cuffs and neckline.

"What's wrong with you today?" Sasuke eyed her.

She was not smiling or frowning, but her expressionless features made it quite obvious that she was not in a good mood either, and was making absolutely no effort to hide it.

"As opposed to my winning charm every other day?" She retorted.

Sasuke shrugged. "True."

Alaska returned to facing the window without another word.

"Hello." Hinata greeted them from where she stood on one of the landings in front of the shelves. She was elegant as usual in a long, silver dress with a white fur shrug wrapped around her shoulders.

"Hi Hinata!" Naruto waved up at her.

She smiled shyly at him.

"We decided to come down here and help since the weather is pretty bad today."

"You mean _you _decided to help and coerced the rest of us into it." Sai stated. "I wanted to paint."

"Shut up Sai, we're all supposed to be here to help." Kiba chastised him.

"What is there for us to do?" Kiba asked Hinata.

The dark – haired girl looked over at Alaska, but when she remained facing the window, Hinata turned back to the boys.

"Just spread out, look for anything to do with the robe or those symbols we saw on the spine of the book."

"Sure!" Naruto said excitedly.

"The books we've gone through have been marked so you can skip over those." She added.

The group spread out and spent the morning as well as part of the afternoon scanning the library and marking books as they were done with them, although they had no luck as well. Alaska remained by the window, moving only to curl up by the cushions lining the window seat.

"You look like you could use something to occupy your thoughts."

Alaska looked up to see Gaara standing over her and holding out a book.

"Thanks." She turned back to the window. "But I think I've been through enough history books for the time being."

"I thought so."

Alaska looked back at him.

"It's a poetry book, though I'm not sure if it's to your interest."

She took the book from him. "Thank you."

Gaara nodded before moving back to the bookcases beside the window seat.

As he scanned through the books, his eyes drifted back to Alaska. She thumbed through the book, barely lingering on a one page before moving on to the next. Her mind was too cluttered for her to focus on serious poetry but…

She looked up to see Gaara watching her and guiltily flicked her eyes back down to the page.

"Don't do me any favours." She heard him say.

"Excuse me?"

He pointed to the book. "You don't have to force yourself to read it if it does not interest you."

Alaska leaned forward to rest the book on her bent knees and her chin on the book.

"That's not quite the reason."

Gaara turned to face her, crossing his arms and tilting his head to one side in what Alaska took as a questioning gesture.

"I've actually lost count of the number of times I've read this book."

Alaska smiled, something that caught Gaara by surprise considering that she'd basically shut out everyone around her the entire afternoon.

"So it bores you then?"

"On the contrary, if it bored me, I would never have read it so many times."

Gaara nodded.

"Have you ever tried reading poetry while your mind is on other, more important things?"

"No."

Alaska couldn't help but chuckle at how he answered so straightforwardly without even pausing.

"Not a poetry person huh?"

"Never have been."

"Why not?"

Gaara shrugged. "I've never had much time for books."

"Really?" Alaska sat up, intrigued. She'd always had time for books. Then again, time was something she had a lot off…all to herself. She slouched back down again and stared out the window.

"Did I say something wrong?" Gaara asked, noting her body language.

"Oh…" Alaska quickly looked back at him. "Sorry, I just, thought of something else for a moment."

"I noticed."

"So how is it that you haven't had time at all for books?"

Gaara thought about the question, thought about his responsibilities to Suna, his siblings, protecting his friends…his childhood.

"You ask too many questions."

"Only because you don't volunteer enough information."

"Neither do you."

Alaska smiled. "I have my moments."

"I have yet to see these moments."

"I have yet to show them."

"Works both ways."

"I could say the same to you."

"Ladies first."

_Tap Tap Tap_

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the floor to ceiling windows on the far side of the library. Manda hovered outside, completely drenched, with a large grin on her face. Tenten on the other hand looked entirely put – off.

Hinata quickly rushed over to unlatch the window and let the pair in. Tenten made a beeline for the fireplace and squatted down in front of it, warming her shivering self. Manda stood by idly, twirling a lock of her wet hair around her fingers.

"You know," Alaska stood up and crossed her arms. "You could have used the main entrance, maybe taken a hot shower in the process."

"Miss Amandromeda wanted to make an entrance." Tenten said spitefully.

Alaska cocked an eyebrow.

"You call that an entrance?"

"I got the attention of everyone in the room didn't I?"

Alaska gave Manda a blank stare before pointing at the puddle around her feet. "Please clean the floor when you're done with your entrance moment…or lack thereof."

"Yeah yeah." Manda waved her hand and the puddle rose up into droplets before evaporating.

"Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

"Yeah you look it."

Alaska just ignored the comment.

"Actually," Tenten stood up, although she remained by the fire.

"Besides Manda's attention seeking problem, there is another, more urgent reason we used the window instead of the door."

"Now you have our full attention." Neiji said.

Manda simply pouted.

"What did you find?" Alaska asked.

Manda's expression immediately became troubled.

"I was being drawn to the South – East coasts, but I didn't make it that far."

"I had to make a pit stop at one of the river tributaries running down to the coast. The piles of dead bodies were kind of distracting. So was the smell."

"Did you just say dead bodies?" Naruto asked, shocked.

"Yes genius, dead bodies."

"Attitude Manda." Alaska chastised.

"So anyway," The girl continued on as if Alaska had not said anything. "The dead bodies…"

"There were piles of them scattered on the riverbanks. It was…there are no words to describe it." Manda dragged a hand over her face, as if trying to rid her mind of the images.

"You'd think I'd be used to this after decades of living."

"How could something like that happen?" Sai questioned.

"All the bodies had multiple bite marks. Do with that what you will."

"Vampirs." Sasuke muttered.

"And we have a winner."

"Did you see any Vampirs?" Hinata asked.

"No. And I didn't go any further after I found the bodies. I didn't want to run the risk of being seen."

"I erased all signs of myself and bolted."

"So Vampirs…on the coast." Hinata whispered.

"Most likely feeding off villagers from the fishing towns." Alaska added.

"That's not all." Manda pointed to Tenten.

"And what did you find?" Neiji asked.

"The fringes of the Western Woods are dying." Tenten said. "Not a single sign of life."

"Sound familiar?"

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say Izganni?"

Tenten nodded.

"Hmmm…" Alaska walked over to a shelf of scrolls and selected a large scroll.

She moved to stand in the middle of the group and opened the three by five foot scroll. Releasing her hold on the scroll, she let it levitate in front of her.

"That is cool." Naruto moved closer to get a better look.

"Do you ever at least _try _to have some dignity?" Sasuke shook his head at him.

Naruto shrugged. "What for?"

This exchange made Hinata giggle while the corners of Alaska's mouth tilted up slightly at Naruto.

"Tenten, Manda, could you guys point out the locations please?"

"Sure." Manda walked over and placed her finger on a point at one of the rivers snaking its way down from the central lakes. A black 'X' symbol appeared beneath her finger.

"This is where I found the bodies."

"Where are the fishing towns?" Alaska asked.

"Here, here and here." Manda circled three areas of the map, highlighting the areas in black rings.

Only one town was linked to the river Niya had pointed out.

Well they must be in that town then." Kiba stated.

"They won't be there dumbass." Neiji said pointedly

"Hey! Who are you calling a dumbass."

"You, obviously."

Kiba growled.

"Now, now, children." Alaska chastised them without looking up from the map.

Both Kiba and Neiji looked over.

"That was humiliatingly condescending." Neiji deadpanned.

"That was the point." Alaska said to him.

"But Neiji does have a point about the Vampirs not being in that village."

"But the river with the bodies leads directly to that town." Kiba interjected.

"Exactly, why would you pollute your only source of freshwater?"

It took a moment for Kiba to absorb this information. "Oh."

Manda laughed while Neiji smirked at him.

"My question is why they aren't just dumping the bodies in the ocean." Sasuke interjected.

"That's what I was wondering too." Neiji added.

"I have and idea about that." Alaska started.

"My guess is that they are here." Alaska pointed to the town that sat farthest from the other two."

"Why?"

"Well, it's far away from the other two towns so its isolated. I doubt the whole army is there though; it's not big enough. And that town is also situated off the Syrenian Coast and that's mermaid waters."

"Which is why they aren't dumping the bodies in the ocean, because they simply can't. Not without angering the Merfolk. It could be possible that they are working with them."

"What's so scary about mermaids?" Naruto asked.

"What do you know about mermaids Naruto – kun?" Hinata asked him.

"Eh…" The blonde scratched his head. "Not much, just fairytales that the teachers told us in kindergarten."

"They said that mermaids were beautiful creatures that sang to sailors to save them from running into rocky cliffs."

"Your fairytales aren't particularly spot on - " Manda said.

"Manda…" Hinata muttered under her breath, shaking her head as she did.

"What?" The girl shrugged. "It's true."

"Yes, mermaids are beautiful and all, bla bla, but they sang to sailors to attract them to the cliffs so that they could sail to their deaths, not avoid the cliffs."

"You seem to really like them." Sasuke folded his arms.

"I've had enough close calls with them to know to keep my distance."

"And Lucian isn't stupid as well."

"Tenten, which part of the Western Woods were affected." Alaska asked.

Tenten too moved to point out a location on the map.

"Here." She drew a short line, highlighting the area. "There were no Izganni in sight though, I checked."

"That was reckless Tenten." Hinata said to her.

"I had to check Hinata, you know where that forest leads to…" Tenten trailed off.

What seemed strange to the shinobi however, was that even though Tenten was was answering Hinata, she'd turned to look at Alaska.

"And you know that we need to warn them." It was clear that she was speaking to Alaska now.

"Their protection spells may be strong but they need to be prepared on the off chance the Izganni break through."

"And you're the only one who knows how to find them."

"Who is this 'them' you people keep talking about?" Sai asked.

No one answered, instead, all the girls seemed to be waiting for Alaska to say something.

"Dog Demons." She finally answered, pulling the map out of the air and rolling it up as she did so.

She seemed deep in thought as she silently placed the map back onto its rack.

"Maaaybe Tennie and I should go instead." Manda said.

"You and Hinata can continue your research in the mean time."

"I don't know how to find them and neither do you." Tenten stated.

"You've been there before."

"I wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to take notice of my surroundings." Tenten snapped at Manda in a harsh whisper.

"Tenten's right, I'm the only one who can find them."

"And for awhile I've known that we'd eventually need to go to them for help anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Tenten asked.

"When I couldn't find a translation for the second symbol on the spine of that book, I thought it might be a rune of some sort." Alaska started to explain.

"But I found nothing."

"The Dog Demon palace is the only place I've seen this symbol."

"It's inscribed on various locations throughout the palace grounds."

"Well, why didn't you say so earlier?" Manda asked.

"We could have avoided the extra digging."

Alaska turned to stare at the dark – skinned girl.

"No, wait, forget I asked, I have a good guess."

"I'm sure you do." Alaska muttered.

"What is the plan?" Neiji, as usual, straight to business.

"We'll leave tomorrow at dawn."

"Okay!" Naruto exclaimed. "What can we do till then?"

"Ummm…" Manda wasn't sure what to tell them and when she looked to Tenten and Alaska, both girls had moved to a corner of the room and were having a conversation of their own with their backs turned to the group.

"Why don't you take the rest of the day to rest and save your strength?" Hinata suggested.

"Sounds good!" Manda stretched her long limbs. "I am in desperate need of a bath."

"Tata!" She waved as she crossed over to the library door and disappeared down the stairwell.

Hinata smiled and shook her head as she watched the girl go. Manda was never without a full tank of energy – if she could help it.

But anyone who knew her well enough also knew what she wanted to keep hidden behind her façade. It was heartbreaking, but despite Hinata's own shyness that she was well aware of, Tenten's bravado, and Alaska's reserved composure, Manda was probably the least herself in front of other people. Ino and Sakura…well…those two were unapologetically themselves, something the air elemental admired.

Speaking off…

"Ino and Sakura should be back soon."

Alaska turned her attention to Hinata.

"I'll get Manda and meet them when they get back. I've got to send a letter to my grandmother first to let her know what's going on."

"Excuse us." Alaska said as she and Tenten left the library together.

"They're feeding aren't they?" Neiji suddenly asked Hinata.

"The Vampirs."

"Why else would only Alaska and Manda in particular meet Sakura and Ino after their 'hunt'."

Hinata cringed slightly at the look on his face. She did not like to be put on the spot. Naruto it seemed, despite his usual lack of intuitiveness, noticed this.

"Ne…Neiji, I'm not sure that's appropriate."

Neiji simply continued to eye Hinata.

"They feed on the blood of others Naruto, what's stopping them from feeding on us."

"Civility, for that matter."

Everyone turned their attention to Hinata, slightly stunned. The girl had gathered herself standing as tall as she could against Neiji's 5ft 9 frame. She'd spoken in a curt voice that none of the shinobi had ever heard her speak in before.

"Sakura and Ino really did go on a hunt for the meat that you find on your plates each evening."

"Yes, they are Vampirs, they have to feed or their bodied will shut down. Please understand that."

"Contrary to what you think however, they sustain themselves on the blood of small animals, not humans, and certainly not the humans they have welcomed into their home."

"Excuse me." With that, she walked out of the library without giving the shinobi a second glance.

"That was not cool." Kiba said the moment Hinata had disappeared down the hall.

"I'm not concerned with being cool." Neiji stated simply. "I'm concerned with ensuring our safety."

"Why can't you bring yourself to trust them?" Naruto asked the Hyuuga prodigy.

"Do you think they trust us?" He responded with a question of his own.

"I think it works both ways." Gaara spoke up, recalling his earlier conversation with Alaska.

"He does have a point." Sasuke added.

"Why don't you just try to keep an open mind? It's only fair Neiji. They'e welcomed us into their home and I don't think they have plans to kill us any time soon." Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe if you give it a chance, you'll come to realize that everyone in this compound has more in common than you think."

Neiji immediately thought of the scars that ran across Tentens forehead.

He looked over at Naruto.

"We should prepare for dinner and tomorrow's journey." The Hyuuga said before walking out of the library by himself.

Naruto let his hand fall to his side.

"Let me translate." Kiba joked. "In Neiji language, that was a 'you have a point, but I'm too stubborn to listen and acknowledge it. However, I will think about it and weigh the pros and cons in a logical manner'.

The rest of the group merely stared at the Inuzuka.

"What?" I've trained with the guy practically my whole life, you pick up a few things."

Gaara sighed and shook his head.

"We should go get some rest before tomorrow and get ready for dinner as well," he said.

With that the rest of the shinobi finally exited the library, leaving the tower quiet once more as the fire in the hearth slowly burned out.


End file.
